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LOUISIANA 



♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 



Statistics apd Ipforfi^atiop 



SHOWING THE 



AfiRieilLTURAL AND TIMBER Wmm, 



The Opportunities for Successful lnvestnieij,t,„.,^ 
and Information for •'*V° ^ 

THE FARMER, Vffe; 

THE MECHANIC, 

THE LABORER, 
THE MERCHANT, 

THE MANUFACTURER 



♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 

Witt) Compliments 

GENERAL PASSENGER DEPARTMENT OF THE 

[HissQuri Paciric-Iion Itlouiitaiii Route. 



. V-. (^ ^ 



A COMPREHENSIVE 

STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION OF 

THE STATE OF LOUISIANA, COMPILED 

FROM LATEST REPORTS. 



^?^ 



WOODWARD & TIERNAN PRINTING CO.. ST. LOUIS. MO. 

[6-15-1900.] 



=^ 



= LOUISIANA. = 



SHE annals of Louisiana will always be an interesting chapter in 
the history of the world. It does not concern merely the area 
which is now included within the boundaries of the present 
State ; it embraces the story of the repeated and persistent attempts of 
France to found an empire in the new world which should extend from 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence across the Great Lakes to the mouth of 
the Mississippi. 

The Louisiana of the seventeenth century extended from the Allegha- 
nies to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Rio Grande and the Gulf to 
the dim regions which now constitute British America. It was first 
visited by Europeans in 1541. De Soto, the Spanish adventurer, with 
his followers, explored the coast west of Florida to the Mississippi river 
and beyond, and he visited the country on both sides of the river where 
now stands the city of New Orleans. In 1542 he was taken sick and 
died. In order to conceal his body from the Indians, his followers 
buried him in the Mississippi river, at the point where it is now met by 
the Red river. 

In 1673, Father Marquette and his Canadians, starting from Canada, 
descended the great river from Illinois to the mouth of the Arkansas. 
The river was again descended by La Salle in 1682, who took possession 
of the country in the name of Louis XIV., and for him named the 
land Louisiana. He explored the river to its mouth, and, returning to 
France, organized plans for establishing a colony. The ship failed to 
reach the mouth of the Mississippi, and the colony landed in Texas. It 
is doubtful whether any colony was established in Louisiana before 
1699, when Iberville, with a company, attempted a settlement at 
Biloxi. This was the chief town until 1702, when Bienville moved the 
headquarters to the west bank of the Mobile river. The soil of Biloxi is 
very sterile, and the settlers seem to have depended mainly on supplies 
from France or San Domingo. 

— 3 — 



LOUISIANA. 

On the 26tli of September, 1712, the entire commerce of Louisiana, 
with a considerable control in its government, was granted to Anthony 
Crozat, an eminent French merchant. The grant to Crozat, so mag- 
nificent on paper, proved to be of but little use to him and of no benefit 
to the colony, and in 1718 he surrendered the privilege. In the same 
year, on the 6th of September, the charter of the Western, or Missis- 
sippi, Company was registered in the parliament of Paris. The exclusive 
commerce of Louisiana was granted to it for twenty -five years, and a 
monopoly of the beaver trade of Canada, together with other extraor- 
dinary privileges, and it entered at once on its new domains. Bienville 
was appointed governor of the colony for the second time. He had 
become satisfied that the chief city of the colony should be situated on 
the Mississippi river, and, therefore, in 1718, New Orleans was founded. 

It was about this time that the engineer, Panger, reported a plan for 
removing the bar at the mouth of one of the passes by a system very 
much the rume as that so successfully executed in recent years by 
Captain James B. Eads. It was a mooted question, however, for some 
time, whether New Orleans, Manchac or Natchez should be the colonial 
capital ; but Bienville had his own way, and removed the seat of gov- 
ernment to New Orleans in 1722. 

The Western Company possessed and controlled Louisiana some 
fourteen years, when, finding the principality of little value, it 
surrendered it in January, 1732. In 1763 occurred an event which left 
a deep impression on the history of Louisiana. On the third of 
November of that year, France, by a secret treaty, ceded to Spain all 
that portion of Louisiana which lay west of the Mississippi, together 
with the city of New Orleans and the island on which it stands. The 
war between England and France was terminated by the treaty of 
Paris, in February, 1764. By the terms of this treaty, the boundary 
between the French and English possessions in North America was 
fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the Mississippi from its 
source to the river Iberville, and from there by a line in the middle of 
that stream, and lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea. The 
French inhabitants were astonished when they found themselves trans- 
ferred to Spanish dominations. Some of them were even so rash as to 
organize in resistance to the cession, and finally, in 1766 ordered away 
the Spanish governor, Antonio di Viola. In 1769 Alexander O'Keilly, 

— 5 ™ 



LOUISIANA, 

the commandant of a large Spanish force arrived and reduced the 
province to actual possessions. The colony grew slowly from this time 
until the administration of Baron de Carondelet, but under his manage- 
ment, from 1792 to 1797, marked improvements were made. 



THE FIRST NEWSPAPER. 

IN 1794 the first newspaper was established, The Moniteur. On the 
first of October, 1800, a treaty was concluded between France and 
Spain, by which the latter promised to restore to France the 
province of Louisiana. France, however, did not receive formal 
possession until November 30, 1802. But France did not remain long in 
possession. The cession to her had been procured by Napoleon, and 
he did not deem it politic to retain such a province. In April, 1803, it 
was ceded to the United States, and on the tenth of March, 1804, the" 
United States took possession. The price paid was 60,000,000 francs, 
besides 13,750,000 for French spoliation claims. 

In 1804, the territory of Orleans was established by order of Congress. 
The rest of the immense purchase was at first erected into the district 
of Louisiana ; then in 1805 into the Territory of Louisiana, and in 1812 
into the Territory of Missouri. At the time of the American possession, 
in 1803, Laussat, the French colonial prefect declares that justice was 
then administered "worse than in Turkey." With the American 
domination came new ideas. In 1808 a civil code of laws was for the 
first time adopted by legislature in Louisiana. It was based, to a large 
extent, on a- draft of the Code Napoleon. By act of Congress in 
November, 1811, the inhabitants of the Territory were authorized to 
form a constitution with a view to the establishment of a State 
lovernment. The debates in the national House of Eepresentatives on 
this bill were long and interesting. The bill having been passed, 
however, the constitution of 1812 was framed and adopted, and on 
April 30, 1812, Congress passed an act for the admission of Louisiana 
Into the Union. 

Three montlis after this, war was declared against England by the 
United States. The contest continued until the treaty of Ghent, 
December 24, 1814. But before the news of peace could cross ths 

— 6 — 



LOUISIANA. 

ocean, a force of 12,000 English soldiers, under Sir John Packenham, 
landed in Louisiana, and made an attack on New Orleans, which was 
successfully resisted by General Jackson with only 5,000 men, most of 
whom were militia from Tennessee and Kentucky. 

The progress of the State from this time until the outbreak of the 
civil war was very rapid. Louisiana had a large interest in slavery. 
On account of the extensive cultivation of cotton, rice and sugar cane, 
and the consequent demand for labor, her slave population almost 
equaled her white. At the outbreak of the war Louisiana promptly 
took a position in favor of secession. Its ordinance of secession from 
the Unioa was passed December 23, 1860, by a vote of 117 to 113. On 
March 21, 1861, the same convention adopted the Confederate Constitu- 
tion, without submitting it to the people, and, in order to conform it to 
their State Constitution, passed amendments for that purpose. From 
this* time until the close of the war the State Government was 
nominally in the hands of the Confederates, though for the last two 
years of civil strife its territory, for the most part, was in the hands of 
the Federals. Some of the earliest, as well as the latest, scenes of the 
war were enacted in this State. 

In April, 1862, Farragut's command entered the Mississippi river. 
He succeeded in passing, and in silencing. Forts Jackson and St. 
Philip, which defended the approaches to New Orleans, and captured 
the city on the 25th of April, 1862. By July, 1863, all the Confederate 
strongholds on the Mississippi were reduced, the towns captured, and 
the river opened to navigation. In 1863, General Banks brought the 
Attakapas country into subjection to the United States, and, in 1864, 
other excursions into the region of the Eed river were made by him 
with but partial success. 

In April, 1864, a new constitution was drawn up preparatory to the 
act of readmission of the State into the Union. This constitution was 
ratified by the people in September, 1864. Under this constitution 
officers of the State were elected, but the general government refused 
to recognize the constitution. In December, 1867, another convention 
was called, and its constitution was submitted to the people to be voted 
upon according to the provisions of that act. This constitution was 
adopted March 6, 1868. Louisiana was again admitted to the Union on 
condition of her ratification of the fourteenth amendment. This was 

"7™ 



LOUISIANA. 

done on July 9, 1868, and on the 13th of the same month the govern- 
ment was transferred from the military to the civil powers. 

Louisiana is one of the southernmost States, and is bounded on the 
north by Arkansas, on the east by Mississippi, on the south by the Gulf 
of Mexico, and on the west by Texas. The western line begins on ihe 
Gulf at the mouth of the Sabine river and follows a line drawn along 
the middle of that stream so as to include all islands to the thirty- 
second degree, north latitude, and thence due north to the thirty-third 
degree. The northern line follows this parallel of latitude to a point in 
the middle of the Mississippi river. From this point the eastern line 
follows the middle of the river to the thirty-first degree and runs on the 
parallel to the eastern branch of Pearl river ; the line then follows the 
middle of this stream to its mouth in the estuary which connects Lake 
Pontchartrain with the Gulf. 

The State is 290 miles from east to west and 200 miles from north 
to south. The area is a superficies of about 48,000 square miles, 
Louisiana being in extent about equal to North Carolina. It has 1,060 
square miles of land-locked bays, 1,700 square miles of inland lakes 
and 540 of river surface, whicli leaves 45,420 square miles of land area 
for the State. 



AREA AND PRODUCTION- 

GOVERNOR MURPHY J. FOSTER, in his message to the Legis- 
lature of this State, used the following forcible language relative 
to the agricultural interests of Louisiana: 
Louisiana has nearly 45,000 square miles of territory, containing some 
28,000,000 acres. Of this amount about 13,000,000 is of alluvial origin, 
and the rest good upland. The alluvial region is now cultivated only 
along the banks of rivers, and the rivers protected mostly by public and 
private levees. Almost all the uplands can be cultivated. 

The geological position of Louisiana forbids the existence of mineral 
products, save salt and sulphur, and the general low topography fur- 
nishes no water power for the wheels of manufactories. Louisiana 
must, therefore, remain for a long time as an agricultural State. Of her 
28,000,000 acres, but a little more than 3,000,000 are in cultivation. 

— 9 — 



LOUISIANA. 

Upon these acres there were grown last year products valued at some 

175,000,000, distributed as follows : 

Sugar $35,000,000 

Cotton 21,000,000 

Eice 3,000,000 

Fruits and vegetables 2,000.000 

Corn, oats and hay 10,000,000 

Oranges 1,000,000 

Live stock and other products 3,000,000 

From these figures very interesting and instructive deductions might 
be drawn of the per capita distribution of money resulting from the 
value of agricultural products alone. 

All her uplands can be cultivated under scientific methods, and be 
made to yield profitable returns. This has been demonstrated by the 
settlements made in the piny woods of east Louisiana, and in the 
prairies of southwestern Louisiana. A thrifty, industrious and intelli- 
gent yeomanry from the northwest has converted these lands into 
prosperous village farms, profitable to the owners, to the parishes in 
which they are located, and to the State. 

After our present levee system has been perfected, much of our alluvial 
lands, by proper drainage, can be reclaimed, adding to our present 
arable area thousands of acres of the most fertile land on the globe.' 

Louisiana is situated between the parallels of 28 degrees 56 minutes 
and 33 degrees north latitude, and the meridians of 89 degrees and 94 
degrees west longitude. The Mississippi River splits it in twain, with 
far the larger portion, about 37,000 square miles, upon its western banks. 
Exclusive of lakes and bays, it has 45,440 square miles of territory, of 
which about 20,000 are of alluvial origin and the rest are uplands of 
varying character. In north Louisiana the hills attain to the height 
of 500 feet, and from this height may be found every altitude, until we 
reach the sky-skirting prairies of the southwest, where the general 
topography is only 30 to 50 feet above the sea level. 



CLIMATE. 

ITS proximity to the Gulf of Mexico secures a prevalence of southern 
winds, cool, and moisture laden, which mitigate the extremes of 
weather, experienced by States to the North. Though our sum- 
mers are prolonged, the heat is never oppressive, the thermometer 

— 11 — 



LOUISIANA. 

rarely reaching 95 degrees. In carefully kept records of the three 
experiment stations for the past eight years, 98 degrees has been the 
highest recorded temperature at New Orleans, 99 degrees at Baton Rouge 
and 100 degrees at Calhoun, in the extreme northern portion of the 
State. These maximums have been rarely reached, not oftener than 
one or two days in a summer. The winters are usually mild, with an 
average temperature of about 53 degrees in the southern and about 
45 degrees in the northern part of the State. 

Professor J. Hanno Deiler, of Tulane University, President of the 
New Orleans German Society for the Protection of Immigrants, says of 
the climate of Louisiana: 

"What kind of climate has the immigrant to expect, and what are 
the health conditions in Louisiana? " This is one of the most impor- 
tant points about which those who intend to settle in this State desire 
information. 

Above all other requirements for a good climate, the difference be- 
tween summer heat and winter cold should not be too great. How 
New Orleans and Shreveport, the representative cities of south and north 
Louisiana, stand in this respect maybe seen from the following table. 

The difference in temperature between the coldest and hottest day of 
the year was as follows : 

Deg. F. Deg. F. 

Key West, Fla. ..... 59 Pittsburg, Pa 115 

San Diego, Cal 69 Cincinnati, Ohio . . . 116 

New Orleans, La 84 Chicago 123 

Pensacola, Fla 84 Columbus, Ohio . . .123 

Sacramento, Cal 89 Louisville, Ky 125 

Jacksonville, Fla 89 St. Louis, Mo 128 

Mobile, Ala . 90 Denver, Colo 134 

Atlanta, Ga 102 Des Moines, Iowa . . 132 

Montgomery, Ala. . . . 102 Dubuque, Iowa .... 134 

Shreveport, La 106 Leavenworth, Kan. . 136 

New York City 106 Omaha, Neb 138 

Philadelphia, Pa 107 St. Paul, Minn 141 

Baltimore, Md 108 Yankton, S. Dak. . . .141 

Little Rock, Ark 108 Valentine, Neb. ... 144 

Memphis, Tenn 110 Ft. Washakie, Wyo. .154 

SantaFe, N. M 110 Ft. Buford, N. Dak. . .156 

Nashville, Tenn 114 St. Vincent, Minn. . . 157 

Portland, Me 114 Poplar River, Mont. . 173 

Boston, Mass 115 

— 12 — 



LOUISIANA. 

Thus we see the State of Louisiana is blessed with a uniform tempera- 
ture, and can not only compare favorably with other States, but is, in 
this respect, far ahead of most of them. 

Ice appears here very rarely, and with the exception of the winter 
of 1894-5, when the severest cold weather prevailed everywhere, New 
Orleans has only once in twenty years had a sufficient quantity of snow 
to allow the people for a few hours the novel sport of snow-balling, 
which many preceding generations had missed. 

Regarding the Heat of Summer in Louisiana, there prevails in many 
parts a totally erroneous opinion. It is believed that it must be warmer 
here than in other States because Louisiana is located farther South. 
Such reasoning is utterly false ; living in close proximity to the Mexican 
Gulf, and having during the month of March, April, May, June, July 
and August almost constantly south winds, we always have a cooling 
sea breeze. 

It is a well known fact that residences with sufficient openings 
toward the south are always preferred. 

In consideration of the above, it is not astonishing that during the 
summer of 1894 the highest reported temperature in New Orleans was 
only 99 degrees Fahrenheit, against— 

100 in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul. 

101 in La Crosse, Wis., and San Diego, Cal. 

102 in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Lynchburg and Norfolk, 

103 in Columbus, Ohio, and Wilmington, Del. 

104 in Cincinnati. 

105 in Louisville. 

106 in St. Louis, Mo., Omaha, and Valentine, Neb. 

107 in Montgomery, Ala., Leavenworth, Kan., Boise City, Idaho, 
North Platte, Neb., Fort Bufort, N. D., and Yankton, S. D. 

108 in Sacramento, Cal., and Fort Elliott, Tex. 
110 in Poplar River, Mont. 

113 in El Paso, Tex. 

114 in Red Bluff, Cal., and 
118 in Yuma, Arizona. 

Another widespread error is the impression that a white man can 
not work in this climate during the summer, and that only the negro 

— 13 — 



LOUISIANA. 

can stand the heat. As far as the heat is concerned, the truth has 
been stated above; in regard to labor it should be said that there are 
certain people who can never work, because they do not want to — during 
the summer it is too hot, and during the winter too cold for them, and 
they are willing to believe that only the negro can stand the heat. 

Our German gardeners and farmers, as well as thousands of other 
nationalities, have performed labor in garden and field for many years. 
They need no negroes, and feel so comfortable that they prefer the 
summer to the winter. On extremely hot days they work in the field 
only during the morning and afternoon hours, "laying off" during the 
midday heat, as they do in other sections under similar conditions. 

Cases of sunstroke are reported from Northern and Western cities 
by the half-hundred ; they occur here but seldom. 

An important factor in describing the different climates is the statis- 
tics of rainfall, as the work of the farmer can not be successful without 
rain. It is safe to say that Louisiana is a land richly blessed in this 
respect. 

In making comparisons with other States, it should be remembered 
that in Louisiana rain-water alone has to be dealt with, while in the 
Northern States the amount of Snow-water is included. 

Furthermore, it should be remembered that the rainfall in different 
parts of a State is different, and that, therefore, whenever the figures 
are at hand the minimum and maximum are stated. 

The States are arranged in the order as the maximum was reported, 
and fractions have been left out. 

Bainfall and Snow-Water from Sept. 1, 1893, to August 31, 1894: 

Louisiana Max. In. 64 Min. In. 52 

Oregon ' 

Missouri * 

Kentucky ' 

Texas ' 

Indiana * 

Illinois ' 

Ohio " 

Kansas * 

— 14 — 



49 


9 


48 


' 38 


46 


' — 


45 


10 


44 


* — 


43. 


* 36 


41 


' 31 


38 


* 20 



LOUISIANA. 



RAINFALL. 



THE average yearly rainfall at New Orleans is about 70 inches, 
decreasing in quantity as one goes northward, with 45 inches 
as an average in the extreme northern portion. The heaviest 
showers fall in summer during the growing season. Winter comes 
next in its quantity of rainfall, while our springs and autumns are our 
dry seasons, with only occasional showers. Such seasons are conducive 
to the welfare of our staple crops, cotton, sugar cane and rice ; dry 
springs, permitting a successful planting and cultivation of these crops, 
and dry autumns, so essential to the rapid and economical harvesting 
of them. Our regular rains are from the southwest; yet in summer 
they sometimes come from the northwest, and when they do, they are 
usually accompanied by thunder and lightning. 

The climate of the entire State, from October till May, is an ideal 
one, attractive alike to the invalid and tourist, and thousands of visitors 
from the North are yearly seeking this State in quest of health or 
enjoyment. The hotels of New Orleans furnish attractive homes for 
the opulent and fashionable, while men of moderate means can find 
cheap and excellent homes in the smaller hostelries and private 
boarding houses of this city, in the towns and villages scattered over 
this State, and along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. 



GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. 

/T'N erroneous impression generally prevails that Louisiana is 
f X wholly alluvial — a low-lying swamp which has to be drained, 
ditched and leveled to make inhabitable. An examination of 
the figures given above refutes, in unmistakable terms, this error. 
Not only the larger area of the State is upland and above any possible 
flood, but a slight majority of the population of the State, outside of 

— 15 — 



LOUISIANA. 

the city of New Orleans, reside on these uplands. To this portion of 
the State belongs nearly seven-tenths of her rural white population. 

Geologically speaking, Louisiana is a very young State. It had no 
existence at the end of the Paleozoic Age. Only a few closing chapters 
of the world's history are here recorded, and these have been written 
by water, which is now, as ever, the great factor in landmaking in 
this State. 

The following condensed table will give the geological ages and 
groups found in Louisiana, and the material and fossils of each : 

NAME OF GROUP. CHIEF MATERIALS.. KIND OF FOSSILS FOUND. 

Quatenary Age. 

Alluvium ;~^Soils . = Living plants and animals. 

Second bottoms Soils Living plants and animals. 

Bluff lands Brown loams 

Loess Calcareous silts 

Blue clay Clays 

Drift Sands, pebbles, etc Living shells and trees. 

Yellow sandy clays. . .Sands, loams and clay Living shells and trees. 

Coast formation Sands and clay Living shells and trees. 

Tertiary Age. 
Grand Gulf group Light clays and white sand- 
stones Plants partly extinct. 

Vicksburg group . Marls and limestone Marine animals. 

Jackson's group Marls and limestone Marine animals. 

Arcadia clays Gray clays No fossils. 

Upper Lignitic Dark-colored clays Plailts— Lignite. 

Claiborne Marls Marine animals. 

Lower Lignitic. Dark-colored clays Plants— Lignite. 

Cretaceous Age. 

Ripley Marls and limestone Marine animals. 

Only three of the principal geological periods are here represented, 
and one of these by its uppermost group, with only an occasional 
outcrop. 

While all of these groups are represented in Louisiana, very few of 
them occupy excessive surface development, and, therefore, take but 
little part in the formation of soils. 



16 — 



LOUISIANA. 

RIVERS AND WATER COURSES. 

NO state in the Union has so much alluvial land or so many 
miles of navigable waters. The widest part of the flood plain, 
as well as the delta of the Mississippi River, lies within its 
border. The alluvial and marsh lands derivable from this river are 
over 13,000 square miles. The bottoms of the Red, and its tributaries 
before it enters this valley, about 1,700, the marsh lands west of the 
delta about 4,000, other alluvial and swamp lands about 600 square 
miles, making in the aggregate a little over 19,000 square miles of 
alluvial land, or nearly one-half of the State. 




A LOUISIANA BAYOU SCENE. 

The Mississippi and the Red are the chief drainage channels of the 
State, and almost all of the largest streams of these basins diverge from 
them, and hence are called bayous. Before the days of levees they 
formed so many channels, or outlets for the escape of water in floods. 
Such a network of connections has thus been formed that it is now 
difficult sometimes to trace the course of an individual stream. As a 
rule, some large bayou flows along the edge of the bottom plain. 
Bayou Macon is on the west of the Mississippi flood plain, Ouachita 
River on the extreme west of the central plain, bayous Boeuf, Cocodrie 

— 18 — 



LOUISIANA. 

and Teche on the west of the flood plain of the Red River. In north 
Louisiana the rivers follow the trend of subterranean rocks. In the 
east they flow southeasterly in the Ouachita, and southward into the 
Red. In the extreme south those west of the Mississippi flow south- 
ward into the Gulf ; those east, southeast into the lakes. 



WHAT LOUISIANA'S LANDS WILL GROW. 

THE general impression prevails that the South can grow only 
cotton, sugar cane, tobacco and rice; that other crops cannot 
be grown successfully, and that hay-making and stock-raising 
are impossibilities in this sunny land. 

This erroneous impression has been produced by the persistency of our 
planters and farmers in growing the crops just mentioned, a persistency 
largely inherited and acquired, with our large plantations filled with 
ignorant, unskilled laborers, who have been disciplined since youth in 
planting methods. But the climax has been reached. Planting on a 
large scale is no longer popular. Unreliable labor, low prices, soil 
exhaustion and high money rates have shorn this business of all its 
pleasures and most of its profits. Disintegration and division is now 
the order of the day, and the large plantation of yesterday will be 
to-morrow the abode of many happy and prosperous farmers. 

The question may be asked. What else can be grown in Louisiana? 
The reply is a sweeping one : Nearly everything capable of growth in a 
temperate or sub-tropical country. Wheat has been, and can be, 
grown in the northern part of the State. Oats sown in the early fall, 
and using the rust-proof varieties for seed, will do as well here as 
anywhere on earth. Over 100 bushels per acre have been grown on 
the alluvial and bluff lands of the State, while the hill lands of north 
Louisiana have frequently given over sixty bushels per acre. Spring 
oats are sometimes successful, but are not generally to be recommended. 
Rye and barley, if home-grown seed be used, will thrive all over the 
State, and are frequently sown for winter pastures. The stock is 
turned on during the winter, and at the beginning of spring it is 
removed and the grain permitted to mature, frequently with large 

— 19 - 



LOUISIANA. 

results. Two successive crops of buckwheat have been grown in thie 
State on the same soil in one year. 

Corn can be grown easily all over the State, and if the same atten- 
tion and methods of cultivation were given it here as in the corn- 
growing States of the West, the average yield per acre would be but 
little under that produced there. But corn is a side issue with the 
cotton and cane planter, and is cultivated as little as possible. Under 
this 'Houch-and-go" method, the yield of this State during the present 
year is but little below 20,000,000 bushels. By proper rotation, fertiliza- 
tion and cultivation, this yield could easily be doubled. Upon the 
alluvial lands of south Louisiana the sugar experiment station has for 
several years averaged over 100 bushels per acre upon a field of eight 
or ten acres. Sixty to ninety bushels have been obtained at the State 
experiment station at Baton Rouge upon the bluff lands, and thirty to 
sixty bushels are the average yields upon the rotation fields of the 
north Louisiana experiment station, situated at Calhoun, upon the 
yellow sandy loams of the oak and short-leaf pine hills. 

One caution is needed in planting grains of all kinds here ; that is, 
for a general crop use home-grown, acclimated seed ; e. g., corn grown 
here is planted in early March, and harvested in August or September, 
while seed from the extreme North planted at the same time will 
probably mature in May, and that, too, with only a partial crop. 
Wheat and oats, per contra, planted in the fall from seed raised in 
the extreme North, will not ripen before June or July, if at all (the 
rust frequently destroying it before ripening), while home-raised seed, 
sown at the same time, will be ready for harvest in May. If, therefore, 
we desire an early crop of corn, we obtain seed from the North, and if 
an early crop of oats, wheat, barley or rye be desired, we send South 
for the seed. The reasons are obvious, when we remember that each 
comes to us inheriting the habits of the country from which it came. 
In the North the summers are short, and the time of the growth of the 
corn is, therefore, limited. In the South the winters are short, and, 
therefore, the period of repose is materially shortened, and early 
maturity follows. This involves the whole question of acclimation. 
In Louisiana, under good culture, the corn crop will always be from 
20 to 100 bushels per acre. 

— 20 — 



LOUrSIANA. 

German and cat-tail millets, the sorghums, both saccharine and non- 
saccharine, clovers, grasses and root crops, cow peas, teosinte and other 
forage crops can be grown over the entire State in larger quantities per 
acre than elsewhere, since the tendency of our climate and the extreme 
fertility of our soils are to make "weed." 

Vegetables of all kinds can be, and are, grown in large quantities. 
Besides those grown in the North and West are many others, peculiar 
to the South, such as okra, globe artichoke, lima beans, etc., beets, 
cabbage, lettuce, radishes, turnips. Mustard, cauliflower, English 
peas, etc., are grown throughout the winter in open ground. In fact, 
every home, however humble, has its garden, in which most of the 
vegetables are grown. Besides these home gardens there are thousands 
of acres devoted to truck growing and market gardening. From the 
latter our own cities and towns are supplied, while the former utilize 
many thousands of cars in transporting their products to the Western 
markets. 

Of fruits a great variety of superior excellence can be grown here. 
The apple is grown in the northern part of the State. The pear, 
particularly the Chinese type, all over the State. The peach will grow 
everywhere, but it fruits best in the hill lands. The native and 
Japanese varieties of plums do well everywhere. The apricot, nec- 
tarine and cherry are not successful anywhere in this State. Grapes 
can be grown in every parish, but succeed best in the uplands. Black- 
berries, dewberries and mulberries grow wild in every parish ; so do 
the wild plums in the hill lands. Strawberries are perfectly at home 
everywhere, and in some sections are largely grown for the markets. 
Raspberries, currants and gooseberries do not thiive so far South. 

Oranges, kumquats and pomelos are grown throughout south 
Louisiana, while lemons, guavos, bananas and pineapples are grown 
on the extreme Gulf Coast. The kumquat and pomegranate are found 
in nearly every yard of south Louisiana. Figs are cultivated in every 
parish, while in south Louisiana they are largely grown for the 
canneries. 

No mention is made of our staple crops — cotton, sugar cane and rice 
— since they are inseparably connected in every man's mind with 
Louisiana and New Orleans. 

— 21 — 



LOUISIANA. 

This bare reoital will show the wonderful capabilities of our soil 
and climate from an agricultural standpoint. Turning to the forests, 
we find a wealth of Nature's products ready for the harvest, to be 
turned by man's skill and ingenuity into the various forms and shapes 
suitable for man's wants. Timber of all kinds, stave, box, hub, 
spoke, tray, hoop, ship, bucket, etc., crowns our hills, decorates our 
valleys and fills our swamps. Shade trees of the densest foliage and of 
most beautiful shape everywhere abound. The evergreens and 
deciduous trees grow side by side in every forest. The magnolia and 
the liveoak intertwine their boughs with the beech and the ash, while 
the holly and the dogwood bask in their shadows. Willows abound in 
our swamps, ready for conversion into charcoal or to be twisted into 
baskets. 

Louisiana does not appeal alone to the utilitarian. Her aesthetic 
products are perhaps more wonderful than her useful ones. Flowers 
of brilliant tints and attractive forms fill her fields, her woods and her 
swamps. Her climate favors the growth of native flowers as well as 
the delicate and highly prized exotics. Roses bloom in great profusion 
throughout the winter in open air, while japonicas, hibiscus and 
poinsettias of beautiful shades and brilliant tints are found in many 
yards. Tea olives and magnolias (f uscata) , and cape jasmines perfume 
the air with their delicious fragrance, while chrysanthemums, gera- 
niums and plumbagos give brilliancy to every garden. 

Palms of endless variety furnish the center pieces of many private 
yards, and ornament our parks and public squares. 

Such, in brief, are the products of our soils. For the guidance of 
those seeking a home in our midst the following details of crops from 
here are given : 



SUGAR CANE 



WAS first introduced into Louisiana by the Jesuit Fathers in 1751. 
But it was not until 1794 or 1795 that Etienne de Bore made 
the first commercial crop of sugar therefrom. A large num- 
ber of planters soon followed Mr. Bore's example, and began the 
erection of sugar houses all over the southern part of the State. With 

— 23 — 




LOUISIANA. 

each succeeding year names were added 
to the list of sugar planters, and all of 
them rapidly accumulated wealth. An 
additional impulse was given the in- 
dustry in 1820 by the introduction of 
our present variety of cane by Mr. 
John J. Coiron. Previous to this time 
the Creole and the Tehili were the 
varieties used. The striped and purple 
varieties introduced by Mr. Coiron, 
now, with few exceptions, occupy the plantations of this State, and 
will doubtless remain, unless supplanted by some of the promising 
seedlings now annually propagated on the sugar experimental station. 
Sugar cane is a gigantic grass, often reaching ten to fifteen feet 
in height, straight during growth, but is bent or reclined often by its 
own weight, or by the winds at maturity. Its roots are fibrous and 
lateral, stretching in all directions, and usually not penetrating the 



CUTTING CANE. 




PLANTATION SCENE. 

— 24 — 



LOUISIANA. 

soil to any depth. The cylindrical stalk is composed of nodes and 
internodes (points), with alternate leaves, clasping during growth, 
leceding and falling off at maturity. Under the base of each leaf in 
the node is a bud or eye which contains the germ of the future cane. 
Until recently these buds were regarded as the true seed of 
the cane, but experiments made successfully and repeated by many 
experimenters in tropical countries, have shown that the panicle of 
flowers produced in tropical countries, when the cane arrows, con- 




IN THE QUAKTERS OF A SUGAR PLANTATION. 

tained a few really fertile seeds. By planting the latter, a large 
number of "seedlings" have been produced, and by selection several 
of these are now coming forward with prominent qualities to displace 
the varieties heretofore used. The seeds of cane are so small, and so 
many of them infutile, that they are useful only for augmenting new 
varieties. The cane crop of the world is therefore still produced 
in the usual way, by planting the entire or portions of the stalk, and 
raising young plants from the eyes or the buds at each joint. 

— 25 — 



LOUISIANA. 

The following is the method pursued in Louisiana: The ground 
is thoroughly prepared by deep breaking, followed by pulverization. 
Rows from five to seven feet wide are laid off and thrown with high 
ridges. The crest of these ridges is opened with a double mould 
board plow, and into this opened furrow stalks of cane (one to three) 
are placed in continuous lines, and carefully covered with plows or 
hoes. The drainage is established by quarter drains, ditches and 



->%; 



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^^^^ 


, -»f^ 


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Si? 


s&;. 




YARD OF A PLANTATION HOME. 

canals. From each bud on the cane deposited comes a young shoot of 
cane, which litters rapidly, giving, later, a continuous stand of 
crowded cane of nearly double this quantity. With improved imple- 
ments, the use of fertilizers, and more careful cultivation, the acre 
yields have already been doubled. The spirit of progress is in the 
air, and larger results may be annually expected from both field and 
factory. 



26 



LOUISIANA. 



AREA IN CULTIVATION. 



The following parishes grow sugar wholly or in part, and the yields, 
taken from Bouchereau's report for 1896 and 1897, is given with each : 



POUNDS. 

Ascension 46,667,172 

Assumption 64,770,328 

Avoyelles 2,228,500 

E. Baton Rouge . . . 7,087,450 

Iberia 32,515,057 

Iberville 47,664,150 

Jefferson 8,642,104 

La Fayette 3,098,900 

Lafourche 66,954,223 

Orleans 2,779,272 

Plaquemines 17,773,433 

Pointe Coupee .... 9,088,800 



POUNDS. 

Rapides 7,272,750 

St. Bernard 3,231,850 

St. Charles 18,957,145 

St. James 57,899,613 

St. John 26,274,276 

St. Landry 962,090 

St. Martin 7,970,062 

St. Mary 120,871,420 

Terrebonne 59,205,770 

Vermillion 1,986,050 

W. Baton Rouge . . . 24,850,876 

Other Parishes .... 5,938,261 



The above gives a total crop of 631,699,561 pounds of sugar, and was 
accompanied by a crop of molasses of 20,820,130 gallons. There were 
in operation in 1896 and 1897, 230 sugar houses, using vacuum pans, 
which give an output of 56S, 778,470 pounds of sugar, with an averngo 




SUGAPv SEFINERY 

— 27 — 



LOUISIANA. 

of 161 pounds of sugar per ton of cane ground, and 3,220 pounds of 
sugar per acre. There were 165 small open kettle sugar houses, which 
turned out 62,921,091 pounds of sugar, equal to 180 pounds per ton of 
cane ground, and 2,360 pounds of sugar per acre. The land devoted to 
sugar cane in Louisiana is about 300,000 acres. This can be almost 
indefinitely increased. Even in those parishes where sugar-cane 
growing is the chief industry, there are still large areas which may be 
profitably devoted to the culture of this plant, and will be in the very 
near future, when the central factories become more numerous, or 
those already erected shall increase their capacities. Several of the 
parishes given above are now growing cane only in very limited areas, 

while nearly every 
acre on them can be 
profitably used in the 
cane culture. 

In the parishes 
given above there are 
over 15,000 square 
miles, or about 10," 
000,000 acres. There 
are in cultivation at 
the present time 
about 1,000,000 acres, 
or one-tenth of the 
area, of which only about 300,000 are in cane, producing about 300,000 
tons of sugar annually, or about one-seventh of the total amount con 
sumed in the United States. If the entire area now in cultivation in 
these parishes could be devoted exclusively to cane, this section would 
produce one-half of the sugar consumed by our entire country. But 
there are, besides, vast areas in these parishes that can, with but little 
expense, be brought under cultivation, and should this be done the total 
area available for sugar culture in these parishes would be amply suffi- 
cient to grow all the sugar demanded by the people of this entire 
country. There are also other parishes now just beginning to grow 
cane, which have proved adaptable to this crop. The parishes of 
Acadia and Calcasieu and the two Felicianas, with an aggregate area of 




CANE FIELD— LOADING CART. 



28 — 



LOUISIANA. 



4,777 square miles, and with little or no unavailable lands, can largely 
increase the sugar output of the State when capital will erect the 
necessary central factories. 

CENTRAL FACTORIES. 

The cost of a central factory capable of working daily from 300 to 
1,500 tons of cane, with all modern machinery suitable for the 
manufacture of the best sugars, will be from |75,000 to $300,000. The 
profits from such factories, if well located, will be sufficiently large to 
justify capitalists in erecting them. At the same time thousands of 
small farmers and planters stand ready to grow the cane whenever the 
factories are assured. 

Formerly every 
cane culturist was also 
a manufacturer, and 
upon every plantation 
of sugar cane was to 
be found a sugar house 
of sufficient capacity 
to work up the crop 
grown. To-day the 
scene is changing, 
changing rapidly . 
Central factories exist 

—-some that do not cultivate cane at all, but purchase every stalk 
crushed; others that grow only a part, large or small, of the large 
amount consumed. The presence of central factories presupposes the 
existence of cane farmers in close proximity. Many central factories 
already exist, and others will soon be built. The fierce conflict between 
low prices and profitable returns has forced out of existence many a 
small and incomplete sugar house, and will ultimately drive out the re- 
maining ones. Machines with large capacities, must hereafter manu- 
facture the crystalline product of sugar cane. It requires a large 
amount of cane to supply the daily demands of a large central factory ; 
1,000 to 1,500 tons per day is now a moderate allowance for the largest. 
Under these new conditions, the growing of sugar cane for sale to 
these factories is extensively practiced. Small farmers, with ten acres 

— 29 — 




A BATON EOUGE SUGAR REFINERY. 



LOUISIANA. 

of sugar cane, can find a ready market for it, just as readily as the 
large planter, with one hundred times this crop. The crops of both 
are in demand. Growing cane by the ton for sale to central factories 
is a profitable business, and many have embarked therein. 

Sugar cane is bought upon a basis of values for a certain grade of 
sugar, and hence, when the latter is ruling high, the former conforms 
to it in price. No enterprise is more inviting than that of raising sugar 
cane by the ton for the factories. Lands in any quantity may be pur- 
chased or rented well adapted to the growth of cane. The capital 
required will depend largely upon the magnitude of the enterprise. 
One's own labor, if intelligently directed, will accomplish a great deal 
toward the cultivation of twenty to thirty acres of cane. Additional 
help will be required in planting and harvesting the crop. Good land 
will make from twenty to forty tons of cane per acre, and at present 
the factories are paying eighty-five cents to one dollar per ton for each 
cent per pound that prime yellow sugar brings in the market of New 
Orleans. There is a large field in Louisiana for the investment of 
capital in central factories and for intelligent labor to grow the cane. 




PLOWING FOR COTTON. 

— 30 — 



^^^^m 



LOUISIANA. 



RICE. 



POEMERLY, all the rice grown in this State was cultivated on 
the banks of the Mississippi River and its outlying bayous, and 
watered by these streams. Pumps and syphons were used to 
elevate the water over the levees. Upon these alluvial lands growing 
rice was an expensive business, involving the outlay of a large sum of 
money, and the expenditure of a great deal of labor. A few" years 
since, southwest Louisiana bo^an the cultivation of rice upon its own 





KICK MILL, AT CUOWLEV, LA. 

prairies in a most primitive way. Rain water was collected by levees 
and used when needed upon the fields of growing rice. So successful 
were these primitive methods that thousands were attracted to this 
section for the avowed purpose of embarking in rice culture. Rice 
grown only by the aid of rain water is styled " Providence rice," and 
was found, in the long run, to be devoid of the large profits which were 
possible under abundant irrigation. Hence, capital soon combined, 
and dug irrigation canals connecting with some bayou or river, from 
which the water was lifted by large steam pumps, for the purpose of 
irrigating rice. Quite a number of these canals, many miles in length, 
and of sufficient depth and width to transport the water required for 

— 32 — 



LOUISIANA. 




STALK FROM ONE GRAIN 
OF RICE. 



the irrigation of thousands of acres, have 
been built in the last few years, and others 
are in the process of construction. Every 
rice section is contemplating the construc- 
tion of a canal at an early date, and every 
running stream or bayou is called upon to 
deliver its full quota of water for irrigating 
rice fields. The planters willingly pay 
large water rents for the water used upon 
their fields, and both the capitalists owning 
the canals and the planters using the water 
are satisfied with the profits upon their in- 
vestments. Under such powerful stimu- 
lants, rice culture has grown in this section of the State by " leaps and 
bounds," and to-day Louisiana grows four-fifths of all the rice produced 
in the United States, her crop, annually, approximating two millions 
of sacks of the weight of one hundred and sixty -two pounds each. 

This remarkable development in the field has been paralleled in the 
factory — for almost every town or village in this rice section has one 
or more rice mills, which buy their rough rice directly from the planter 
and ship their finished products to the markets of the world. There is 
ample room for the expansion of this industry, which is growing 
yearly at a rapid rate. Gradually "Providence rice" is being super- 
seded by the more certain irrigation rice — as the canals afford the 
necessary water. There are still abundant opportunities for the con- 
struction of more canals, and thousands of acres awaiting but the 
revivifying touch of irrigation waters to be transformed into produc- 




RICE FARM NEAR IOWA, LA. 

— 33 — 



LOUISIANA. 



tive rice fields. 
Thousands of Western 
farmers have trans- 
ferred their wheat im- 
plements and machin- 
ery from the West to 
this section, and are 
now successfully- 
using them in the 
growing of rice, whose 
cultivation is similar 
in many respects to 
that of wheat. 

The following is the 
usual method pursued: Lands are well broken with riding plows 
and pulverized with large harrows, and the rice seeded with 
broadcast seeders or drills. After germination the fields are flooded 
and the water kept on them until the rice is nearly ready for the 
harvest, when it is drawn off and fields permitted to dry. When dry, 
the rice is quickly harvested with self-binding reapers. Steam thrashers 
convert the rice into a marketable form (rough rice), which is sold to 
some of the numerous mills of the State, where the finished rice of 




PUMPING STATION, CROWLEY 




THRASHING AND STACKING RICE. 

— 34 — 



LOUISIANA. 

commerce is prepared with the accompanying by-products, "rice 
polish," "rice bran" and hulls. The last are used under the boilers 
to furnish steam, while the others are most valuable for stock feed, 
equaling in nutrition the middlings and bran from the wheat. The 
straw is either left on the field or fed to the stock, additioned by 
cotton-seed meal or rice bran or polish. 

So cheaply and successfuly has rice been grown on the prairies that 
they are now but little more than continuous rice fields, while the 
planters on the alluvial lands have nearly all disappeared. 

Good lands produce from ten to twenty sacks of rough rice per acre, 
which sell at prices varying from |2.50 to $5.00 per sack. At present 
extremely good profits are realized by the prudent rice planter, and 
there is room for many thousands more in this section before the 
industry will be overdone. 

Kice belongs to the cereal family of grasses, and any one familiar 
with wheat culture can easily grow rice. 




THRASHING RICE THREE MILES NORTH OP JENNINGS, CALCASIEU PARISH, LA. 



35 



LOUISIANA. 



COTTON AND COTTON FACTORIES* 

THE cotton industry in Louisiana is one of tremendous import 
and significance. The powerful influence it exerts on trade, 
absorption of capital, both as product and manufacture, places it 
high in the scale of commercial economics. There is no section of the 
world more fortunately situated for the production of cotton than 
Louisiana. In the past it has been of such potent significance that it 
has been called "King." Its future depends on the establishment of 
factories in the South. Cotton producing offers an inviting field for 
speculative investors, because the lands which grow it can be pur- 




COTTON SEED OIL MILL. 



chased cheaply ; it can be produced at a nominal cost. The first thing 
to be done is for the raisers of cotton to send less cotton to the East, 
and manufacture more of it at home. 

Of all the industries which Louisiana has which offer inducements, 
that of cotton manufacturing offers supreme attractions. The advan- 
tages of location of a cotton factory anywhere in the State, on the scene 
of the production of raw material, is now a trite topic. Fifteen or 
twenty years ago New England contended that it was preposterous for 
the South to think of manufacturing any grade of goods from cotton. 

— 37 — 



LOUISIANA. 

In a few years the South has practically driven the East out of all lines 
of coarser manufacture, and now is demonstrating that this promise 
was not over-estimated. This subject is receiving a great deal of atten- 
tion in Louisiana. It has been successfully tried in the Carolinas, and 
in Louisiana stock companies have already been organized for the 
erection of cotton factories. The inducements in this field are tremen- 
dous. There are many things which place Louisiana at the head of 
cotton producing States, and specially as a field for the erection of 
factories. First, the cheapness of building materials, which is a great 
element. Second, the cost and quality of labor and cheap fuel. Climate 
is an important consideration. But the greatest consideration of all is 









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^^y 

^ 





A LOAD OF COTTON. 



the proximity to the choicest cotton, purchasable direct from the pro- 
ducer, with but little cost for transportation, having both river and rail, 
and without the charges of middlemen. Free sites can be obtained in 
many of the smaller towns for the erection of factories ; cheap brick and 
lumber are always plentiful for the erection of the factory; and 
labor is always easily obtainable in Louisiana. Shreveport has 
organized a stock company for the erection of a cotton factory, and the 
amount necessary has already been subscribed. Other cities and towns 
are moving actively. New Orleans has had a number of successful 
mills, all turning out a good grade of goods, which have never failed to 
find a quick and ready market, and pay good dividends. 

— 38- 



LOUISIANA. 

The hill lands of the State, producing the greatest diversity of crops, 
will yield one-half bale of cotton per acre, while the alluvial lands 
yield from one to one and a half bales. 

No lands can grow cotton cheaper than these. 




COTTON COMPRESS IN FULL BLAST. 

FRUIT. 

/J LTHOUGH subject to some disadvantages in the way of unsea- 
( A. sonable cold spells, Louisiana nevertheless produces a number of 
delicious fruits. The various soils of the State govern these to 
a great extent, but there are some which grow in all sections. 

Among these we have the blackberries, dewberries, figs and pears. 
The berries grow luxuriantly in all sections, but there are cultivated 
varieties which are very desirable, namely, the Austin and Manatee 
dewberries. Figs grow in great abundance all over Louisiana, and 
seldom fail to produce a full crop. The ordinary blue fig, known 

— 40 — 



LOUISIANA. 

as the Celeste, easily leads in popularity. It is the hardiest, and is very 
sweet and prolific. Other desirable varieties are the Brunswick, White 
Ischio, Angelique, Lemon, Mission and Eeine Blanche. Besides fur- 
nishing a full amount of material for daily home use, and home pre- 
serving, an abundance is produced for a commercial canning product. 
The great need is for factories in Louisiana to take care of them. They 
are very perishable, hence refrigerator service is demanded for ship- 




PHOTOGRAPH OF PEAR TREES, IN CALCASIEU PARISH. 



BANANA PLANTS AT AUDUBON PARK, 



ment, and then it is doubtful if much profit could be realized, as decay 
sets in as soon as the figs are exposed, and, besides this, few people out 
of the fig district appreciate the exquisite lusciousness of a ripe fig. 

The only pears grown with profit are the varieties of the Oriental or 
sand pears. Of these we have the Le Conte, Garber, Golden Kusset, 
Smith and Kieffer. The prevalence of blight prevents the culture of 
any of the European pears, hence little is done with them, but the 
sand pears offer by far the greatest resistance to this troublesome 



LOUISIANA. 




FIG ORCHARD AND HOME OF 
JENNINGS, LA. 



disease, and although 
often fatal to them, 
with proper care little 
damage will result. 

Many of the Amer- 
ican plums do well, 
also many varieties 
of the Japanese sorts, 
but the European va- 
rieties, such as the 
Gages, are not able 
to stand the long, 
moist, warm season. 
Of the Japanese sorts 
the leading ones are 
the Burbank, Abund- 
ance, Satsuma, Kelsy 
and Chabot. 
Another Japanese fruit of great promise is the Japanese persimmon. 
These fruits are large, showy, and will stand transportation well. The 
few sent North sell for seventy-five cents and upwards per dozen. 
Some of the finest varieties are the Hyakume, Kuro Kume, Nero Zami, 
Hachiya, Tsurn and Among. 




PEAR ORCHARD IN BOSSIER PARISH. 




PEAR AND PLUM ORCHARD IN BLOOM. 



— 43 



LOUISIANA. 

In the sandier portions of the State, that is, in the eastern and 
northern parts, very good peaches are grown. Among the peaches 
we find the Elberta, Eivers, Sneed, Chinese Cling, General Lee, Gen- 
eral Taylor and the Peentoe. They bear abundantly, but are not as 
long lived as the trees farther north. In the southwestern part of the 
State, nearing the Texas line, very good grapes are grown, among them 
being the Concord, Champion, Niagara, Eaton, Moore's Early, Herbe- 
mont and the Scuppernong. 

Among the apples we have the Red June, Shannon, Black Twig, 
Horn, Astrachan, Yates and Transcendent. 

Below New Orleans is found the orange section, which is a most 
profitable fruit in Louisiana, and is treated of fully in the article which 
follows. 




ORCHARDS AND TRUCK FARMS AT HAMMOND, LA. 



— 44 — 



LOUISIANA. 



ORANGE GROWING IN LOUISIANA. 

FORMERLY it was supposed that only the extreme southern 
portion of Louisiana could grow oranges. In fact, little or no 
effort was made prior to 1880. Seeds from sweet oranges were 
planted in some corner of the yard, garden or lot, and when germinated 
permitted to grow, unaided by cultivation, pruning or fertilization. 







A 


^ 


'*?'5^ 12 J\ ^ 




'-^ 


m 


w 


ft^: 




J 


1 


i 


i 



THREE YEAR-OLD SATSUMA ORANGE THEE. 



In the course of time the straggling, neglected trees bore fruit — 
delicious fruit — for home uses. Thus a home knowledge was obtained 
of the character of Louisiana fruit, but so few found their way to the 
outside world that the latter knew absolutely nothing of their merits. 
The neglected, enfeebled trees were frequently killed by cold, by 
insects or by diseases. The rapidity with which orange trees, under 
such adverse conditions, were destroyed, soon engendered a popular 
sentiment that oranges could not be profitably grown in Louisiana. 

— 45 — 



LOUISIANA. 

This opinion has, however, been now almost entirely dissipated. 
Profitable orange groves are found all along the gulf coast, and these 
groves receive careful cultivation, pruning and removal of insects. 
Since 1880 one grove of 100 acres, planted in sweet seedlings, has 
brought to its owner $257,000 for the fruit on the trees. The 
Italians buy the fruit on the trees and then gather and ship it to 
market. Since 1880 a decided change has come over our orange 
dreams. 

The sweet seedling is used now only to furnish buds for insertion 
and growth upon the hardier stocks. The sour and bitter-sweet 
oranges, the rough lemon, the grape fruit and the citrus trifoliata all 
now furnish stock for our groves. The sour orange is hardier than the 
sweet, and will endure a much lower temperature without injury. The 
citrus trifoliata is very harJy, standing the climate of Philadelphia. 
It is dwarfish in its habits, and, therefore, is to the orange what the 
quince is to the pear. By budding on this stocky small trees are 
obtained, which may be planted closer together in the orchard. Like 
the dwarf pears, they bear earlier than the standards. 

New varieties of oranges have been introduced from all over the 
world ; some of these, notably the Japanese contributions, are very 
hardy. The Satsuma budded on trifoliata will grow and bear fruit up 
to the central portion of the State. When thus bulded on the citrus 
trifoliata it is very hardy, enduring, perhaps, the greatest cold of any 
citrus fruit. This combination is now sold largely for growth, in half- 
barrels, in Northern conservatories. Frequently a tree thus treated, will, 
in three years, bear over 100 oranges. It may, therefore, be asserted, 
with our present knowledge of oranges, that successful culture of this 
fruit can be carried on all through south Louisiana, provided proper 
attention be paid to the following: 

First — Selection of the hardier varieties upon the hardiest stocks. 

Second — Windbreaks, natural or artificial, upon the north and west 
of the grove. 

Third — To shade each row upon its eastern side. 

Fourth— To provide temporary means of mitigating the cold (which 
comes with severity only for a day or two) by fire, smoke, smudges, etc. 

— 46 — 



LOUISIANA. 

Kows of olives (much hardier than oranges) have been suggested for 
the accomplishment of the third object. 

These precautions are given for the guidance of those who propose 
to locate groves above the city of New Orleans. Below the city little 
or no danger is apprehended to an orange grove from cold. These 
precautions are necessary in most every orange-growing country. 
Florida and California both suffer occasionally from freezes, and many 
thousands of dollars have been spent in both States for the protection 
of groves from cold. 



POPULATION. 



The following table shows the growth of the State since 1810 : 

Year. Population. Density. 

1810 76,756 1.7 

1820 152,993 3.4 

1830 215,739 4.7 

1840 352,411 7.8 

1850 517,762 11.4 

1860 708,002 15.6 

1870 726,915 16.0 

1880 ,939,946 20.6 

1890 1,115,000 




MAKING THE ABBOTT DUSON CANAL, 



— 47 — 



LOUISIANA. 

VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. 

COTJISIANA, contrary to the general impression outside the State, is 
capable of producing, and does produce, a great variety of agricul- 
tural products. The writer of a pamphlet published by Welch 
& Marye, real estate and immigration agents at Alexandria, essays to 
enumerate these products, and says : 

**In cereals we can produce oats, rye, barley, buckwheat, India corn, 
sugar cane, a great many varieties, and many varieties of sorghum." 
Having gone thus far the writer pauses to insert a foot-note, in which 
he **begs the reader to understand that he speaks advisedly" and 
then continues as follows : 

"In textiles we can produce cotton, flax, ramie, and jute. The writer 
has never seen any hemp growing in this State ; but cannot but believe 
it would succeed. 

"In grasses, the list is simply legion; all the favorite Northern 
grasses ; many Southern grasses ; and several far superior to any of the 
former. And we can have our fields green the whole year with the 
richest herbage ; our rainfall and heavy dews playing most important 
parts in summer and our genial sunshine in winter. 

"It has been demonstrated (as a corollary of the above), that we can 
raise the finest stock— Short Horns, Devons, Jersey's, Holstein's, and 
Galloways in cattle ; that we can raise fine mules ; also fine thoroughbred 
and trotting horses — the great Lecompte having been a native. Sheep 
of almost every breed have been tried (except the Saxony) , and South- 
down, Merinoes, Leicesters, Cotswolds, Shropshires have all succeeded. 
It is one of the best sheep countries in the world, in its pine woods 
belt. Hogs of almost every breed have been tried and approved — 
Berkshire, Poland China, Jersey Red or Duroc, Yorkshires, Guinea, 
taking rank about as enumerated. Here and there one commends the 
Chester White; but that opinion, we think, larger experience will 
change. The Irish Grazier no one now regards favorably. It is a 
wonderful country for poultry. Hens lay the whole year round, and 
broods of chickens are easily reared at almost any season. This 
suggests spring chickens ahead of competition in St. Louis, Chicago, 
etc. Geese, turkeys and ducks are all in high feather ; having a beauty 

— 48 — 



LOUISIANA. 

of plumage, a health and flavor of flesh quite surpassing. In vegetables 
it would be absurd to attempt an enumeration. There are few that we 
cannot successfully raise. Asparagus, celery, cauliflower (thought only 
a little while ago to be barred by our climate) , we have demonstrated 
that we can successfully produce. Horse-radish we can raise to 
perfection. In fruits, the list is endless almost in its varieties : oranges, 
bananas, peaches, pears, apples, quinces, grapes, blackberries, dew- 
berries, raspberries, strawberries, pomegranates, figs, Japan persim- 
mons, plums, apricots, nectarines, Japan plums, whortleberries, 
mayhawi sloe. We firmly expect to see this State take great prom- 
inence in grape-growing in the next few years. We have some 
information as to foreign grapes that promises great things. We are 
assured that the Delaware is a grand success near Alexandria. If this 
be so, it will mean a great deal for the country. Raising early fruits 
and vegetables will be a matter of course in the future. A very 
superior pecan has come to the front, introduced by Mr. W. R. Stuart, 
of Mississippi, and we have been shown by him one superior to any he 
has yet disclosed to the public. A pecan orchard of this superior nut is 
one of the best heritages one can leave children. Chestnuts, filberts, 
almonds, walnuts (black and white) can be successfully produced. 

''Tobacco, ginger, indigo, tea — these are some of the products we do 
not classify. 

"There is a spirit of experimentation pervading the people generally. 
The agricultural fairs, the Farmers' Alliance, and the experimental 
stations of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State, under 
the charge of Prof. Wm. C. Stubbs, Ph. D., as director, are all stimulat- 
ing the people. Looking through and around the whole field of experi- 
ment, it is doubted if there is any investigation so broad, so scientific, 
so aggressive in the United States as the last. The experiments cover 
agriculture, horticulture, stock-raising, truck-farming and vegetable- 
raising. The trials in sorghum and sugar cane are unapproachable. 
In a few years the results of these experiments of Prof. Stubbs will 
afford the most authoritative criteria for all operations in the farm and 
garden, and he will be regarded as the spokesman of nature, as it were, 
the interpreter of soil and climate. To his experiment stations will 
repair the future enquirer for information, as to any line of industry' he 
may think of engaging in. The grape grower can learn the best variety 

— 50 — 



LOUISIANA. 

or varieties ; what will and will not succeed, so in any line of horticul- 
ture. We have prefaced thus, because we propose to press into our 
service some of Professor Stubbs' beneficent work in behalf of the State 
and general progress. These experiments are not haphazard. They 
are based on methods both practical and scientific (at bottom, much 
the same) , and show there is no land in this State that is not amenable 
to reclamation, and almost illimitable improvements. The basis of 
experiments at Baton Eouge and Calhoun were lands that, from ordi- 
nary standpoints, were next to execrable. The crops produced are 
certainly inspiriting, and are prophetic of an exalted plane of agricul^ 
ture in a few years. We commend to any one contemplating a rural 
vocation, a study of the reports of the Commissioner of Agriculture of 
the State. In them are embodied the experiments of Professor Stubbs, 
as well as much other very interesting matter relating to the farm, field 
and garden. We now give some facts that upset the idea that any 
lands in Louisiana are too infertile to be worth culture. In 1886, Pro- 
fessor Stubbs raised 103 6-32 bushels of oats at Baton Rouge. The 
experiments ran from a production of fifty-one bushels per acre (not 
fertilized) , up to the above — 103 6-32. At Kenner Station (where the 
land is naturally much superior) , the best results in 1887 were 79 7-32 
bushels of oats per acre. In 1888, at Baton Rouge, 65>2 bushels of oats 
per acre were raised. In 1889, 78.3 bushels of oats per acre was the 
best result at Baton Rouge. They encountered a severe drouth. Mr. 
McQuade, at Baton Rouge, raised 62 bushels of oats per acre, on very 
thin land, fertilized. Experimenting on thirty acres, Mr. Story raised, 
in St. Bernard Parish, 60 bushels to the acre. Mr. A. W. McLaurine, 
of Rapides Parish, says that he seldom raises less than 60 bushels per 
acre, a not uncommon crop here. 

*'At Baton Rouge there were 17% bushels of wheat per acre in 1888. 
In the same year at the same experiment station, 51 bushels of barley 
per acre were produced. In 1889, Michigan Bronze wheat yielded 19.9 
bushels per acre. 

"In 1889, a large experiment in Irish potatoes was made. In that 
year, on March 22, three hundred and three varieties were planted. 
They were dug on June 21 and 22. A light rain, enough to produce 
germination, fell immediately after planting ; but from that time until 
just before harvest there was not a drop. 

~ 51 — 



LOUISIANA. 

"The following are some of the best results: 

Bushels Bushels 
per acre per acre 
mer'ble. culls. 

Platts No. 505 299.2 93.5 

Early Perfection 187.8 78.2 

Sunset 178.6 88.0 

Nights Early Standard 178.6 87.4 

Cayugo 173.4 24.6 

"A large number of varieties went below 100 bushels per acre. Only 
65 out of the three hundred and three varieties, or 10 per cent, gave a 
yield of 100 bushels or over per acre. The above experiment was made 
without fertilizers, if we do not misconstrue it. The potatoes were 
planted at a wrong time, and some gathered when unripe. And the 
crop is not a criterion, by reason of need of rain. 

"Another experiment was conducted at the same place to try the 
merits of different fertilizers, and showed much greater production. 
Space forbids our giving the full table. We select one fertilizer as a 
sample. 

Experiments in Fertilizing Potatoes. 
Yield in Bushels per Acre. 



HOW FERTILIZED. 



Name of Variety. 



Nothing. 



Mer. 



Culls. 



1,000 lbs. Cotton 

Seed Meal, 

500 lbs. Kanite, 

500 lbs. Acid 

Phosphate. 



Mer. 



Culls. 



Extra Early Vermont.... 

Nova Scotia Rose 

Mammoth Pearl 

Early Beauty of Hebron 

Early Sunrise 

Early Snowflake 

Burbank 

White Star 

Peerless 



67. 
144.5 
200.6 
184.5 
154.5 
160.5 
336.0 
264.5 
143.0 



134. 
85. 
59.5 
89.5 
91.0 

148.5 
73.0 

850.0 

140.0 



279.5 
448.5 
376.0 
356.5 
444.0 
588.0 
490.0 
514.5 
511.0 



96. 
187.5 
132.5 
191.0 
104.0 
140.0 
141.5 
123.5 
174.5 



"If space permitted, we should be glad to show other results, under 
other auspices, in potato culture. And, for the same reason, we are 
compelled to leave out the crops of hay, peas, beans, melons, etc., etc., 

— 52 — 



LOUISIANA. 

of these experimental farms, and debarred enumerating the varieties of 
grapes, peaches, pears, apples, quinces, plums, -strawberries and rasp- 
berries that are on trial. 

CORN. 

"We now give an enumeration of some crops of corn, made in vari- 
ous parishes, in various years, by persons who, in most instances 
(perhaps) , were seeking best results in competition with their neigh- 
bors. The results were always (presumably) achieved by the use of 
i fertilizers ; almost always either cotton seed or cotton-seed meal. Jack- 
son parish in 1886, reports as best results, 50 bushels per acre ; Lincoln 
parish reports from 60 to 87 bushels per acre; Ouachita, 62 bushels; 
Rapides, 60, on common sandy soil; Richland, 50 bushels per acre; 
Caddo, 87>^ ; Webster, 85, 97, 117 and 109)^ bushels per acre. In the 
year 1887, De Soto parish reports one farmer as raising 75 bushels per 
acre; another, 119; Union, 63 and 126 on uplands. In 1887, Claiborne 
reports from 68 to 100 bushels of corn per acre ; Bienville reports 873^ 
bushels corn to the acre, on hill land, fertilized with cotton seed ; Boss- 
ier, several farmers raised 75 bushels per acre ; Calcasieu, same year, 
60; Claiborne, 60 to 120 bushels of corn per acre ; Jackson in 1887, prize 
acres produced from 50 to 100 bushels corn per acre ; Morehouse, 75 
bushels corn to the acre ; Terrebonne, 60 bughels corn to the acre ; Union, 
42 to 72 bushels corn to the acre. In 1888, in De Soto, 155 bushels corn 
per acre; in Morehouse, 100; in Ouachita, 80; Baton Rouge (Professor 
Stubbs),79.6; at Calhoun (experimental station, first year on poor land). 
Many parishes that make no show on this list have far better soil than 
those producing many of the above corn crops ; better than any, perhaps, 
with very few exceptions. These results in production of corn are owing 
to a stimulus to improved culture and fertilization. To whatever they 
may be owing, they demonstrate the folly of people who assert that 
Louisiana is no corn country. 

"Considering that the crops were produced (with a possible exception 
here and there) , without analysis of soils ; that the land was not in best 
tilth; that the experimentaUsts were generally tyros; that the soils 
could not have been at their best (because high fertilizing counts best 
on richest soil), but on the contrary that the crops were made, often, 
on poor soils, crudely fertilized ; considering all that, we think it is a 

--53 — 



LOUISIANA. 

good demonstration of the recuperativeness, durability and tractable- 
ness of our soils ; that they are not a vexatious problem to the agricul- 
turist, and do not keep him in waiting ; but most generously respond to 
all attentions. And the easy lesson from the above is that : Given a 
fair season, decent tillage, and a dollar or t~'o of cotton-seed meal to 
the acre, our poorest lands will bring surprising crops of corn. 

STOCK RAISING. 

"Stock raising and dairying would be most remunerative industries 
here. A creamery is one of the matters that ought very soon to materi- 
alize here. Professor Stubbs puts the former matter thus: 'That 
dairying and stock raising can be made exceedingly profitable all over 
the South admits of scarcely a doubt.' Of course, many cattle breeders 
south knew that more than a decade ago ; but it is just as well that the 
facts should have the authority of his name, for doubting citizens or the 
distant uninformed. 

"It has been amply demonstrated that mule-raising is perfectly feas- 
ible. The demand for mules in Louisiana is greater than in any other 
State of the Union ; and this is the market of ultimate value. The cost 
of raising them here is a bagatelle, compared with the West. Their 
health, steady growth and early development, in fact, every desideratum^ 
unmistakably foreshadow the business to be one of the future prom- 
inent industries of the State. A mule can be turned into market per- 
fectly grown and broke at three years old. A fourteen to fifteen and 
a half hand mule can be raised from a fourteen and a half Louisiana 
mare, when bred to a proper jack. 

"Hay making can be made exceedingly profitable. The large crops 
possible with our rainfall and long season of sunshine ; the adaptation 
of our soil and climate to an innumerable variety of grasses ; the fact 
that the South still imports a great quantity of hay, indicate to those 
who would make hay a most lucrative business. If space permitted, 
we could show some surprising results in favor of various clovers, 
timothy, orchard, red top and other grasses. And this matter of grass 
all the year round, will open up to us the business of sending in fat 
cattle of choice beef-strains to St. Louis and Chicago, early in the sea- 
son, before Western grass-fed beef are ripe. 

— 55 — 



LOUISIANA. 

''"We have given a view of the products of the soil of Louisiana; but 
there is a world of riches in the waters of the State, which would take 
large space to enumerate. It must not be forgotten that Louisiana has 
the Gulf of Mexico for her storehouse in exhaustless stores of the most 
superb fish, along all her southern border. And here are to be found 
the most prized inhabitants of the deep ; the celebrated diamond back 
Terrapin of the Chesapeake waters ; the Prawn — known as shrimp — so 
dear to Englishmen; and the oyster of superb flavor and greatest 
abundance. And one has but to help himself to these wonderful boun- 
ties of the sea. Then Louisiana has fresh-water fish (of entirely- 
different species from those of the salt water), in her many rivers and 
lakes, and innumerable clear- water streams. Indeed, the store of fish 
is a wonder to those who are fond of the sport of fishing. And it is no 
exaggeration to say that Louisiana has an unfailing support for man in 
her waters alone. 

'Then the supply of game — deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, 
quails, wild ducks, wild geese, even bears. These, and other game afford 
not only delight to the sportsman, but a very material element of sub- 
sistence for her people." 




STOCK FARM SCENE. 



56 — 



LOUISIANA. 



THE LUMBER INTERESTS. 

SHE city of Alexandria, the county seat of Rapides parish, is in the 
center of the long-leaf pine district of the State. Within a 
radius of seventy-five miles almost all of the long-leaf pine to be 
found in Louisiana stands ready for the ax and saw. An estimate of 
this pine closely approximates the enormous total of forty billions of 
feet, a figure which is far beyond the comprehension of any man. 
This means low prices and a bountiful supply of building material, not 
only to Louisiana, but an enormous traffic to the railroads centering 
there. It ought to mean the construction of car works and factories of 
all kinds in the immediate future. 

But this immense lumber area only foreshadows a part of the huge 
cluster of industries that ought to diversify the future of Alexandria in 
wood-working. Near at hand are the finest woods, which are a con- 
trolHng factor in almost all conceivable aspects of industries into which 
wood may enter. Here are accessible and cheaply obtainable the finest 
oak, ash, hickory, sweet and red gum, yellow poplar, magnoha, cypress, 
etc. What an opportunity all these offer for agricultural implement 
factories, wagon and carriage factories, for manufacturing furniture! 
If the paper manufacturer wants wood for pulp, he can find inexhaust- 
ible supplies in cottonwood, or in sap pine at nominal prices. The 
woodenware manufacturer can have unlimited raw material in our 
tupelo gum, the choicest material for his purpose. He who wants to 
manufacture ax handles, spade and hoe handles, spokes, felloes, etc., 
may find in the ash and hickories superb raw material, the cheapest 
and best. He who wants to get the finest staves for hogsheads can 
find cypress and white oak. Ash makes the very finest oars, in especial 
request in the English navy. Nothing need be said on the topic of the 
value of cypress for furniture, sashes, doors and bhnds. 

Southwest Louisiana not only has within her borders as fine prairie 
lands as the sun ever shone upon, rich in rice, sugar, fruit and 
vegetable possibilties, and splendid orange lands that can successfully 
rival the best orange lands of California and Florida, but she also con- 
tains some of the most extensive and magnificent forests of valuable 

— 57 — 



LOUISIANA. 

timber in the United States. From Lake Charles northward for more 
than 100 miles stretches one magnificent forest of stately pine, cypress, 
magnolia, oak, ash, etc., the pine predominating. 

This pine is of an entirely different character from the short-leafed 
and loblolly pine of Arkansas and Tennessee. It is the long-leafed 
yellow pine, the finest in the world. This timber is the most beautiful 
and durable of all the pines, and it is used wherever it is introduced 
where beauty and strength are desired. It is rapidly coming into 
prominence as the best lumber in the world for car building. It makes 
the finest of finishing lumber, the best flooring, ceiling and dimension 
lumber in the world. 

The cypress of Southwest Louisiana is the finest in the South, and is 
found in great abundance on the low bottoms of our numerous rivers 
and bayous. This cypress makes the finest shingles in the world and is 
also extensively used in shipbuilding and other building. Cypress 
almost never rots. It is light, strong, easily worked and never-rotting. 
These qualities make it very valuable. It sells higher on the market 
than pine or almost any other lumber. It is so valuable for shingles 
that most of it is saved for that purpose, for cypress shingles are con- 
sidered the best in the world. 

Magnolia is another valuable wood of which there is a good quantity 
in Southwest Louisiana. This is a very hard, close-grained wood, 
capable of receiving a very fine polish and almost everlasting. It is fine 
furniture timber and also unexcelled for wagon hubs. 

Oak of the finest quality is found in great abundance. This makes 
the finest wagon and buggy timber in the world. There are the differ- 
ent varieties of white, black and post oak. Mingled with the oak are 
generally found ash, hickory, pecan and other fine hardwoods. 

Of gum there are several varieties, such as sweet gum, black gum, 
tupelo gum, etc. This timber is in great abundance. It abounds 
not only among the oaks, but also in the cypress bottoms along the 
rivers. It has not been utilized to any great extent as yet, because the 
articles for which it is best adapted are not manufactured here. It is 
very fine grained, tough and light. It is excellent barrel timber, 
perhaps equal to any other wood grown for barrel staves. It is also 
first-class box material, and makes fine furniture. When our mammoth 

— 58 — 



LOUISIANA. 

barrel factory is built here gum will become valuable, and will increase 
in value when we have — as we surely will in the near future — box 
factories and furniture factories. 

Of curly pine there is considerable. This is, without exception, the 
most beautiful of all lumber. When highly polished it rivals in beauty 
the famous mahogany, and even surpasses it. It should be preserved 
for our future furniture factory. It makes, when properly dressed, 
most beautiful casings for door and window frames, and is unequaled 
for fine paneling. 

Lake Charles is the center of our present lumber manufacturing. 
Here we have ten large saw mills, with a daily capacity of 700,000 feet 
of board lumber. We have three shingle mills, with a daily capacity 
of more than 200,000 shingles. These mills are all on the Calcasieu 
river and lake front, and the logs are floated down the river in large 
booms towed by a steam tug. The Calcasieu is formed by numerous 
streams, which traverse the pine and cypress forests and unite into the 
Calcasieu river some miles above Lake Charles. 

The K. C, W. & G. Ry. runs northward from Lake Charles through 
the very best of the pine and hardwood forests, and will soon have a 
large business transporting logs to the mills at Lake Charles, as well as 
transporting lumber from the mills to the markets of the North. 

While the mills are using vast quantities of logs, but little, com- 
paratively, of the immense timber resources has yet been utilized. It 
will take many years at the present rate to cut over the pine forests, 
and by the time that is done they will be ready with another crop ; for 
the pine forests are unlike the Northern forests in one thing : when the 
ground is gone over and the largest trees are taken off, the young 
timber is left and grows about the rate of one inch each year, conse- 
quently, in about ten years after cutting over, the young trees have 
grown to large size, and the timber is as good as ever. Thus about one 
crop every ten to fifteen years can be harvested. 



60 



LOUISIANA. 



NORTHERN LOUISIANA. 

1 I ^ITH the fact as guide to the subject of Ouachita river being a 
III dividing Une between the greater lowland and the greater 
upland regions of North Louisiana, if a map of the State is 
consulted it will be seen that the territory lying between the Ouachita 
and Red rivers, which is the upland region, is greater in extent than 
that lying between the Ouachita and the Mississippi. 

The last, which is the greater lowland region of the two, faces the 
highlands from the point where the Ouachita enters this State until it 
enters upon the flood plain of Red river, and is a most remarkable 
country in whatever light we choose to regard it. The soil is of 
alluvial, and, therefore, recent origin, with not a single element lacking 
which could add to its value as the richest and strongest agricultural 
land on the North American Continent. Its forest growth is the 
densest and largest in the world within the temperate zone. And 
withal, that much of it is never inundated, and its boundaries are as dis- 
tinctly defined as those of the island of Great Britain. It is a product 
wholly of the Mississippi river, supplemented in this case by action of 
the Arkansas and Ouachita, even as in the alluvial district of Louisiana 
south of Red river the Mississippi was supplemented in its action by 
Red river and the Ouachita. 

But, at the same time, we are tempted to wonder again and again at 
the wonderful region which the Mississippi has evidently raised from 
an arm of the Gulf of Mexico, and made it fit for man's habitation and 
use. It will be found that the highland region of North Louisiana is no 
less wonderful in origin. It is, in reality, the southern half of a 
peninsula which in time had stretched from the Ozark Mountains of 
Arkansas to the rim of the Gulf of Mexico, even as to-day it continues 
over as a peninsula system hedged between the valleys of Red river 
and the Ouachita. That is, it is seen to be a survival of foothills once 
connected with the Ozark Mountains, the height of which, though in 
general diminished below the dignity of such association, is yet 
strikingly preserved where the formation verges upon the flood plain of 
the central Red river valley and the lower Ouachita. 

— 61 — 



LOUISIANA. 

Excepting modifications due to local causes, not only is there an 
apparent relation between the topography of the North Louisiana high- 
lands and the Ozarks, where, figuratively speaking, the elements con- 
tinue to grind fertilizing grist for the valley lands of Red river and the 
Ouachita, but the connection is further established in analysis of soil , 
in the universal forest covering of the two, and in a system of moraines 
marking the region, the source of which can be traced directly to the 
Ozark Mountains. Hence, though a classification which had been left 
out of former accounts through neglect to compare the geology of 
Louisiana and Arkansas, it is in fact a Piedmont country which will 
average in general with territory in kind found in Virginia, Georgia, 
Alabama and the Carolinas ; and upon the whole will be found capable 
of like crop production to its prototype of the older Southern States. 

,It is not wholly a highland region — that is, if we take the channels of 
water courses as boundaries of the whole. But with all that, along the 
western and southern edges of the system. Red river is seen to have 
levied tribute, leaving instead a broad strip of alluvial territory of its 
own making ; along the eastern edge it is seen to have resisted the 
combined action of the Ouachita and the Mississippi, until on the par- 
allel of, say Natchez, the Mississippi valley remains contracted to a 
width of only twenty-two miles. 

Save and excepting the interior of the highlands, there is an almost 
equal combination of hill lands and bottoms distinguishing the North 
Louisiana parishes from other parts of the State. This rule seems to 
have been so general when the boundaries of each were established, 
that when lacking a due proportion of either highlands or bottoms, the 
political and, therefore, the geographical jurisdiction of both the Red 
river and Ouachita parishes were, with few exceptions, carried beyond 
these streams. 

Hence in the case of Caldwell parish we have an almost equal extent 
of river lowlands and highland territory — the first lying east of the 
Ouachita and the highlands which abut the river on the west. The 
result is that in soil characteristics, in a great amount of hardwood for- 
est on the one hand, and a still greater amount of long-leaf pine on the 
other, we have a diversity of conditions, whether the settler's bent is 
towards cotton production, grain, live stock or fruit; whether the choice 
is that of a highland or lowland country, or whether the preference is 

— 62 — 



LOUISIANA. 

for agriculture, horticulture, stock-raising, or for manufactures adapted 
to the natural resources of the country. And, indeed, adding to this 
the fact of both its table lands and its lowlands being the cheapest 
found to-day in the West with the H., C. A. & N. R. R. henceforth run- 
ning daily through its territory— the day cannot be far distant when it 
shall be one of the best known and most popular parishes of the State 
situated north of Red river. 

While upon the subject of the parish at large, it is, perhaps, not amiss 
to stress in detail the fact of a low price of lands holding in this 
instance as in other parishes before noticed in this State. And in the 
light of the excellent class of lands had in both the highlands and the 
bottoms, the facts of the case point to good investments for those who, 
knowing something of this part of Louisiana, desire to purchase farm 
or timber lands, now that there is afforded outlet both by rail and river. 

It were in this connection, perhaps, also worth while to explain a 
mistaken impression one encounters even among the best of these 
people, of foreign land and railroad syndicates owning a greater part of 
the forest region of the parish. An investigation of the tax books 
proves that out of a total area of 345,600 acres, only 75,856 are so held, 
of which 43,661 acres are yet to be earned by the Missouri, Arkansas & 
Louisiana railroad, and the remaining 32,155 acres controlled by Jas. B. 
Ellis, of England, trustee. 

The average assessed value of land taxed in the parish is a fraction 
less than |2 per acre, which fact in itself, while it goes to prove a healthy 
financial condition of the parish, emphasizes the absence of the land 
speculator, and, therefore, a low price per acre. This is borne out further 
in the price of forest lands of the highlands, which in general sell at 
$1.25 per acre, and also in the price of bottom lands which further on are 
shown to be held at a remarkably low sum per acre. And in the case 
of sixteenth section and school indemnity lands, owned by the State 
and parish, the first can be had at $1.50, and the last at $2.50 per acre. 

So it is respecting bottom lands or river plantations in cultivation. 
For instance: "Bellevue Plantation," a well-known estate of this 
parish, 2,000 acres in extent, with 300 acres in a high state of cultivation, 
and 150 acres in pasture — which the owner, C. C. Bridges, offers at 
$15,000. It is suited to stock-raising, and to the growth of Southern staple 
crops ; it is distant from Columbia two miles ; it has a river front ; the 

— 63 — 



LOUISIANA. 

titles are good ; fences, tenant house, barns and gin are in good condi- 
tion ; while to round out the bargain, there is a residence on the place, 
the cost of which was |4,000. And in another case, applying to the 
hill territory of the parish, R. R. Redditt, also of Columbia, offers a tract 
of 1,100 acres at $3.50 per acre, with 60 acres open land. It is situated 
twenty-two miles south of Columbia, eight miles from the Ouachita, and 
twelve miles from the railroad, and is described by those who know it 
as one of the best interior mill sites in the country. 

The aggregate area of the parish is 345,600 acres, divided into 184,320 
acres bottom and 160,280 acres highlands. 

Number of acres land taxed or owned by private parties is 284,600, 
and the remainder, consisting of 84,440 acres of sixteenth section 
and school indemnity lands, and 32,240 acres United States public 
land subject to homestead. Of the whole, it is assumed by the assessor 
that 60,000 acres are open land. This is a discrepancy, for at the same 
time it is stated that only 15,204 are actually in cultivation, and at a 
glance this is contradicted by the annual crop production of the 
parish, and by the fact that with a general prediction for the production 
of cotton it were impossible that there should be three-fourths of the 
open territory, or 44,796 acres in pasture. 

The same thing applies when the crop production is summed up on 
the Assessor's books. It is known beyond peradventure that the 
annual crop of cotton is rarely less than 10,000 bales— 7,804 bales being 
alone accounted for in the course of the local trade. And to say that 
this latter amount was raised on the number of acres given below is to 
assert a variance from fact, the cotton production of the hill country 
being included in the estimate. 

As given for what it is worth, only as a means of getting at more 
light on the subject, the following is the crop report of 1891 : Number of 
acres in cotton, 9,656, the production of which in bales was 6,916. 
Number of acres in corn, 5,046, which produced 59,710 bushels of corn. 
Number of acres in potatoes, 397, and sugar cane, 105 acres, the 
production of which was 22,775 bushels, and 304 barrels of molasses, 
respectively. With nothing given on the books of pastures, meadows 
and orchards from which to reason. 

Value of live stock assessed in the parish $120,850 divided as 
follows : Number of horses and mules 1,522, value $80,530, or an average 

— 64 — 



LOUISIANA. 

of $52.65 per head. Number of cattle 5,713, value $28,565, or $5 per 
head. Number of sheep 1,775, value $1,775; and number of hogs 4,980, 
value $4,980. 

Value of land taxed $451,745, or a fraction less than $2 per acre, the 
area assessed being 284,440 acres. Assessed value of personal property 
$230,295 ; or a total assessment of $382,040, exclusive of a total assess- 
ment of the colored population amounting to $50,365, which would 
make the grand total $732,405. 

Number of polls in 1891 : Whites 586, and colored 579, or a total of 
1,165. Total population, approximately, 8,000. School population: 
Whites 1,188, of whom 595 were males and 593 females. Colored 
1,203, of whom 620 were males and 583 females. Total tax collected 
assessed in 1891, $10,253.65, exclusive of poll-tax, which, in this State, 
is diverted to the use of the parish public school fund. The rate of 
taxation for the year was as follows : State tax, 6 mills ; parish tax, 8 
mills; and district lease tax, 5 mills; or say in all 19 mills. And, 
indeed, to all of which should be added the fact of the parish being not 
only wholly out of debt, but that there is a surplus in the parish 
treasury at this time of $4,252.13, of which $2,084.79 belongs to the 
parish public school fund, and the remainder, $2,168.34, to the general 
fund of the parish. 

Of Columbia: Though always limited in number of inhabitants to 
400 or 500, the history of this place is that of having led in large enter- 
prises, and its citizens always of a class who brooked nothing that 
would obstruct their public spirit and enterprise, once the exigences of 
the case called for the investment of their time and money. And as a 
consequence, though hidden away under the bluff banks of the Ouachita 
highlands at a point where there would be scant room for a town of 
2,500 inhabitants without mounting the hills, it will be found, in the 
markets of the lower Mississippi valley, that there is not a minor point 
\n Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas which is better known and 
appreciated than Columbia, La. 

In fact, the writer speaks from a personal knowledge of the place 
dating back nineteen years, when it is stated that it was the originating 
point of both the Ouachita Eiver Transportation Company and the 
Houston, Central Arkansas & Northern Railroad— enterprises which, 
more than all other possible combination of means, are tending to a 



LOUISIANA. 

higher development of the central region of North Louisiana than yet 
witnessed in the farm and forest territory of the Southwest. Or, in 
other words, taking the brave energies of the place and the pace it ha'=5 
set for the Ouachita valley country, it will be found that its right to 
attention depends upon more than is seen upon the calm surface of its 
affairs. For withal that there is much to do toward the general reclama- 
tion of the country to agriculture, such is the bent of its public spirit 
and enterprise as to put out of sight for a time other thought than that 
of a system of small factories so-called, conditioned to material required 
in the manufacture of wood pulp, cotton and woolen fabrics, wagons, 
carriages and furniture. 

Timber resources : The forest area of the parish being 248,600 acres, 
if this sum is multiplied by 6,000 feet, which is the extreme minimum 
of stumpage measurement per acre in this State, it will be found that 
the total timber resources aggregate 1,707,600,000 feet board measure ; 
and of which it is accepted that 968,600,000 feet consists of white oak, 
hickory, ash, gum and poplar, and 739,000,000 long-leaf pine. Conse- 
quently, the central position of Columbia and its rail and river connection 
being taken into account, we have in the sum of the whole and in the 
kind of forest the variety and extent of its timber resources or at least 
the amount which is locally within reach. 

But, according to the process suggested in the outset for getting at the 
facts of the case, if a map is consulted it will be found that the highland, 
or pine, region of the parish, over which it has business and official 
control, is only a fraction of the wide territory bounded by Eed river, 
the Ouachita and the Arkansas State line. The same thing applies in 
case of the bottom territory of the parish. It is but a fraction of the 
lowland country, or hardwood region, bounded by the Mississippi, 
Ouachita, Red river and the Arkansas State line. And as a consequence, 
notwithstanding the timber supply were in reason sufficient, if there is 
added other territory by means of probable connections to strike here 
en route from Shreveport and Texarkana to Natchez, Miss., at a glance 
it is to be seen that the timber supply is practically unlimited. 

The above is without timber resources in sight along the upper 
Ouachita in this State and Arkansas as high as Camden, which would 
insure a cheaper transportation to mill, and a better selection 
according to the demands of manufacturers than any and all established 

— 67 — 



LOUISIANA. 

points it is possible to name in this State without the valley of the 
Ouachita. And forsooth from all of which it is seen that the interest 
w^hich attaches for manufacturers on the side of its timber resources is 
not without justification, especially since it now has the advantage of a 
competing rail and river outlet, not to mention again the predisposition 
of its citizens and the friends of the place to give substantial encour- 
agement to manufacturing industries. 

As under the head of timber supply, the same reasoning would apply 
to textile material for small factories. For while in both foreign and 
American markets Louisiana cotton holds by comparison its own — the 
fact argues nothing of an excellence it were possible to prove did a 
demand spring up for a cleaner and more carefully handled grade of 
cotton at a price equal to the labor required or say at a price possible 
without the cost of freight, commissions, etc. While as to the wool 
clip of the highlands, inconsiderable as it is, according to the extent of 
hill territory, it is a fact that the wool of Western and Northern 
Louisiana, class for class, outgrades that of Texas. At the same time 
it is known to have made the fortunes of those through whose hands it 
lias passed in quantities to Eastern mills. 

Or, in substance, taken together, the chances, as in case of the timber 
supply, would be in favor of securing for manufacturing uses a supply 
■of material well worth looking into, either as a speculation or an invest- 
ment. And as respects wood for the manufacture of paper pulp, the 
resource at the minimum cost for transportation is the Ouachita valley 
for 200 miles north of here. That is, if along with other suitable woods 
tupelo gum is sought, than which there cannot be found the world over 
a wood that would make better paper pulp, or at as low cost per ton. 
Nor can there be found in the State a better supply of clear water and 
as free from impurities as that of the Ouachita — an analysis, in fact, 
having proved that, along with White river in Arkansas, it is one of the 
two navigable streams w^est of the Mississippi whose waters are abso- 
lutely approved by the manufacturers of cotton and paper. 

The site of the town is a recess, or cove, along the bluff or western 
front of the Ouachita, formed through the combined action of the river 
and the weathering hills. The brow of the hill is a half mile from the 
river front, and has a height above the town of something over 125 feet, 
along which, at 65 feet less elevation, the Houston, Central Arkansas & 

— 68 — 



LOUISIANA. 



Northern Railroad threads its way, after having crossed the Ouachita five 
miles above. Hence, at first glance, should the site seem open to the 
objection of being Umited in area, or that the height above the river is 
not great enough, there is immediately at hand an unlimited territory 
with advantages of elevation in its favor as a seat for residence, the 
like of which cannot be found at any other point along the Ouachita 
and Red rivers, excepting Shreveport. 

The exports, or products, sent forward to market from Columbia are, 
in general, cotton, cotton seed, wool, beeswax, furs, pelts, hides, cattle, 
sheep, hogs, staves, egret and heron plumes. 



CENTRAL-NORTH LOUISIANA. 

SHE Houston, Central Arkansas & Northern Railroad enters 
Louisiana near the northeastern corner of Morehouse parish, 
twenty-five miles west of the Mississippi river, and just east of 
bayou Bartholomew, and runs in a southwesterly direction across the 
entire parish, passing through its rich and prosperous prairie farms, 
and skirting its alluvial lands between and on bayou Bartholomew and 
Boeuf river, which is one grand and unbroken cultivated section for 
thirty miles, where it crosses the Boeuf into Ouachita parish. After 
entering Ouachita for six or eight miles it skirts the uncultivated 
hills and plat lands, and then enters the Ouachita river section to 
Monroe, where it crosses the V., S. & P. Railroad. 

From Monroe it takes a due south course along the Ouachita river, 
through twenty-five miles of the finest planting interest in the State. 
The river ranges one or more miles west, with a high bank, and never 
overflows, while the railroad bed acts as a back levee, giving absolute 
protection against overflow. Fifteen miles south of Monroe it enters 
Caldwell parish, which extends ten miles above the Ouachita river, and 
which is also a rich agricultural mine and is in a high state of cultiva- 
tion to where the railroad crosses the stream. 

Ifter crossing the Ouachita river it enters the hill country of Caldwell 
parish and for fifteen miles runs in a southwesterly direction to where 
it crosses into Catahoula parish near the corners of Caldwell, Catahoula 
and Winn parishes, and for twelve miles in Catahoula it runs m a 
southwesterly direction to the corners of Catahoula, Winn and Grant, 

— 69 — 



LOUISIANA. 

where it enters the latter parish just below the mouth of bayou Castor 
and Dugdemonce creek, which forms Little river. It passes through 
the east side of Grant parish in nearly a south course for about thirty 
miles, where it enters Rapides parish and runs directly south ten miles, 
crossing the Red river just above Alexandria, where it connects with 
Gould's system, the Texas & Pacific Railroad for New Orleans, and also 
the Morgan and the Watkins roads. 



SMALL TOWNS. 

SHE towns along this new highway of commerce are mostly new 
and small, but with a brilliant prospect for rapid and permanent 
prosperity. The first of these is Jones in Morehouse parish, which 
is three miles from the Arkansas State hne. There is a good church 
building and a newly -built public school house. 

Bonita, the next town has several general stores and a good school. 
Below Bonita is the thriving little town of Gallon. 
Nearby this point and connected by a railroad spur track is the exten- 
sive saw mill of the Morehouse Lumber Company, which employs about 
100 men. This mill has recently been erected by Northwestern capital- 
ists, who brought with them many Western families, which constitute a 
great addition in the way of making an important little town. 

The mill cuts cypress lumber, which is shipped in large quantities to 
the Northwest. Mer Rouge, situated in the heart of the rich prairie of 
that name, is the next town and, in fact, the most important in the 
parish on this railroad. 

This town is nearly centrally located between Bastrop and Oak 
Ridge, whose merchants receive their goods from this point. There 
were 12,000 bales of cotton shipped this past season from this depot, 
most of which went to New Orleans. At Collins, the railroad from 
Rayville to Bascom crosses the H., C. A. & N. road. There are several 
mercantile houses here, and a good school. Doss is the last station in 
Morehouse parish. Entering Ouachita, the first station is Swarts. 
Monroe is the next place. It is beautifully located on a large section 
of almost level land, with its broad streets and tall, green, live oaks 

— 71 — 



LOUISIANA. 

overlapping its every street and sidewalk, its handsome houses and 
fine flower yards, its many handsome brick business houses, opera 
house, hotels, churches, fine court house and yard, and its new United 
States Government and court building and post oflice, its many success- 
ful manufacturing plants, including two oil mills, ice works, compress, 
bottling works, sash, door and blind factory, foundry, railroad machine 
shop, three very strong banks, two newspapers, two livery stables, 
and one of the finest city public school systems in the State ; with its 
400 white children enrolled and 150 colored children enrolled, with two 
wholesale grocery houses, two wholesale drug houses, one wholesale 
dry goods house, one wholesale whisky house and its 40,000 bales of 
cotton annually, it certainly is entitled to be classed as a first-class 
modern, progressive young Southern city. 

The town also enjoys the luxury of a telephone service. No feature 
of Monroe stimulates a greater city pride than her public schools, 
which are well graded from the lower class to the high school depart- 
ment, with music, elocution, physical culture, etc., as an annex to the 
regular daily course. 

Of Columbia, mention has already been made. Below Columbia, 
all the improvements are entirely new and consist mostly of saw mills. 
The first of these is the Bridger spur where a pine saw mill is operated. 
Then comes Grayson station with one store and post office. 011a, 
which is forty-seven miles north of Alexandria, is the dinner station. 
Tullos, five miles South of 011a, comes next. Bear Spur, Little River 
and Pollock come next in order, then Nugent, Levins and illexandria. 



CENTRAL LOUISIANA. 

r\ LEXANDRIA is the county seat or capital of Rapides parish, in 
f^ the State of Louisiana. The town is situated on the Red river, 
▼ (one of the noblest streams of the State) , and at the head of low- 

water navigation. By river from New Orleans it is three hundred and 
sixty miles, and by rail, one hundred and ninety-six miles. Communi- 
cation to New Orleans is by two trunk lines, both of which are trans- 
continental systems: The Texas and Pacific, and the Southern Pacific 

— 72 — 



LOUISIANA. 

Railways. The town is almost the exact geographical center of the 
State. If regard to practical position be duly weighed, and a most 
devious conformation in an unimportant area of her territory be not 
strictly considered, this centrality, and the railroads now built, building, 
and others morally certain to converge at the town hereafter, almost 
assure her as the future capital of the State. Her unrivaled position 
geographically, is most potentially emphasized by her position for a 
great commercial mart and manufacturing center. 

The town has a population of 3,500, and is growing rapidly. Has two 
banks, one cotton compress, one ice factory, two planing mills, one saw 
mill, one daily and three weekly newspapers, mineral water works, one 
brick yard, a sash and door factory and a barrel factory, four railroads, 
and five others chartered and being built to this place, street car line, 
four good public schools, one convent, seven churches, court house and 
XJ. S. Supreme Court building, steam laundry, four lines of steamboats, 
three hotels, and other business houses generally found in towns of its 
size. Is within seven miles of the center of the State, and surrounded 
by very rich and productive sugar, cotton, fruit, stock and fine timber 
lands. 

The United States has purchased a lot, and an appropriation of sixty 
thousand dollars has been made for a court building and post ofiice. 

The town has been very liberal in encouraging railroads, and stands 
in the highest rank of estimation as a desirable point for all project- 
ing them. Besides the two great trunk lines already named as here 
(the Texas & Pacific and the Southern Pacific), the Missouri Pacific has 
recently completed its line, which gives Alexandria direct connection 
with Little Rock, Memphis and St. Louis. Another road, the 
Kansas City, Watkins & Gulf Railroad, is now completed 
from Lake Charles to Alexandria, a distance of about ninety 
miles. These last two railroads will open the iron and smokeless 
coal of Arkansas, destined to play a great part in the industrial future 
of Alexandria. 

The tax on property in Alexandria is as follows : State tax, six mills ; 
parish, eight ; corporation, ten. This assessment is on a half valuation, 
the latter being low. The rapid enhancement in values insures a 
diminution in rates. 



— 73 



LOUISIANA. 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA, 



SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA, comprising the country which hes 
south of the thirty-first parallel, west of the Atchafalaya and 
east of the Sabine river, has a population of about 200,000 
souls. This district includes the whole of the parishes of Calcasieu, 
Cameron, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin and St. Mary, and 
the southern portion of the parishes of Avoyelles, Rapides and Vernon. 
The general conformation of the country is level, except in the north- 
westerly portion, where it is somewhat hilly and contains one of the 
finest forests of pine and the hard woods to be found in the United 
States. Here abound all the varieties of oak, cypress, beech, maple, 
poplar, gum, ash, sycamore, magnolia, etc. South of this and onward 
to the Gulf the land is prairie, except along its eastern limits, where it 
is swamp, and though of unsurpassed fertility and abounding with a 
vast expanse of magnificent timber, it is subject to overflow from the 
freshets of the Mississippi and Red rivers. This immense tract of 
prairie land is above overflow and stands generally on what is known 
geologically as the bluff formation. It is about forty feet above the 
overflow waters of the Mississippi river, and offers the advantages of 
good and healthful homes to such as desire to cast their lots in this 
favored section of the State. This prairie region is not, like some of the 
great prairies of Texas and the West, almost absolutely devoid of fuel 
and water. It is interspersed with streams of running water along 
whose banks timber enough is generally found to supply the wants of 
the inhabitant in improving his lands and affording him a constant 
supply of fuel for present and future consumption. The blending of 
prairie and woodland through this section furnishes the eye with a 
scene of serene and marvelous beauty, and while the natural arrange- 
ments of the scenes presented here are not such as to inspire the 
mental conditions of sublimity which one would experience on being 
thrown in contact with lofty mountains, deep canyons, rushing cata- 
racts, frightful precipices or the vast expanse of the ocean as it unfolde 

— 75 — 



LOUISIANA. 

itself before our eyes and leads to the recognition of that infinitude of 
power which awes the mind with its terrific grandeur, and reminds us 
that despite our great knowledge in the arts and sciences, we can with 
our finite faculties, take in but a moiety of the mysteries of creation, 
and render subject to our domination so small a share of the rude 
forces of nature, as to impress us with the impotency of our strength. 

Yet there is another class of mental conditions which arise from the 
contemplation of natural objects. It is one that imparts serenity to the 
soul and pleasant contentment to the mind. It is the offspring of a 
sense of repose, or rest in nature, and produces a feeling correspondent 
to the absence of domestic troubles or cares, in a well-regulated and 
prosperous family. It tends to smooth down the rugged spots in our 
natures and gives to our feelings that placidity and calmness which are 
inspired by our surroundings when nature is in a state of repose, and 
the earth presents none of her rugged and scarred places, the cicatrices 
of ancient catastrophes, to obtrude upon our vision or rufiie the smooth 
current of our sensibilities. Such are the impressions produced on the 
mind by the natural phenomena of our country as contrasted with the 
effects of the scenery of some other places. Ours is serene, beautiful 
and pleasing. Theirs is awful, sublime, grand and ofttimes terror- 
inspiring. 

But there is another consideration which weighs heavily in favor of 
Southwestern Louisiana as a dwelling place, and that is the superior 
advantages of its soil and climate. Here one is not troubled with heat 
and cold, as in other more northern and pent-in districts. The gentle 
breezes from the Mexican Gulf are not obstructed by the interposition 
of mountain ranges and immense and impenetrable forests, nor are the 
sun's ray reflected by the rocks on mountain sides and made convergent 
on the valleys beneath, but healthful and invigorating fresh breezes 
proceed directly up the plains unopposed in their march inland, dis- 
pensing comfort and vigor to those who are so fortunate as to have cast 
their lots in this favored clime. The thermometer in winter has an 
average fluctuation of from 40 to 70 degrees ; of course it is sometimes 
below 40 ; it even goes beyond the freezing point ; but this is the case 
for only a few days during the winter, and the rest of this term may be 
said to be free from frost, and life is pleasant outdoors, in fair weather, 
all the winter through. In summer the mercury ranges from 80 to 96 

— 76 — 



LOUISIANA. 

degrees, registering the latter temperature but seldom. Such chronicles 
of sunstroke and death as are detailed by the papers published in New 
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Louisville, St. Louis and other Northern 
populous centers are things which never occur, even in New Orleans. 

On account of the rapid evaporation on the Gulf of Mexico, the 
temperature of the atmosphere is lowered and driven inland by atmos- 
pheric currents, thereby relieving the heated term of much of the 
sultriness and oppressiveness peculiar to climates where the air is more 
rarefied, rendering the nights pleasant, endurable and restful, and 
making it possible for persons to engage in outdoor labor, without detri- 
ment to health, during the whole of the heated term. 



GAME AND FISH. 

IT would appear as if all the ducks, geese, brant, etc., in America, 
flock to the Gulf coast to winter. They are in such immense 
numbers as to form an important part of the winter's meat supply. 

To say that the rivers are full of fish conveys no proper conception of 
the facts, unless it be understood literally. Fish of the choicest varieties 
are present in such immense quantities that they will eventually 
become an article of commerce. 

The small game on the coast, the abundant deer in the pine woods, 
and the fish in the streams, with mild winters, make this country the 
paradise of sportsmen. 

On the newly-opened Houston, Central Arkansas & Northern Rail- 
way, deer are plenty, and fish are abundant. Trout and perch can be 
caught easily in any of the little and apparently insignificant streams 
between the Ouachita and Red rivers. The country is very sparsely 
settled and hunters should carry their supplies along, such as camp 
equipage, etc. The country is one vast forest of pine, oak and cypress, 
principally pine, between the above-mentioned rivers. 



LOUISIAJSA. 



AS OTHERS SEE US. 

Professor Hilgard, in his preliminary report of a Geological Survey 
of Western Louisiana, remarks : 

*'Few sections of the United States, indeed, can offer such induce- 
ments to settlers as the prairie region between the Mississippi Bottoms, 
the Nez Pique and Mermentau. Healthier by far than the prairies of the 
Northwest, fanned by the sea breeze, well watered — the scarcity of wood 
rendered of less moment by the blandness of the climate, and the extra- 
ordinary rapidity with which natural hedges can be grown for fences, 
while the exuberantly fertile soil produces both sugar cane and cotton 
in profusion, continuing to do so in many cases after seventy years' 
exhaustive cultivation — well may the Teche country be styled by its 
enthusiastic inhabitants, the "Garden of Louisiana." 

One of the largest and most intelligent farmers in Central Illinois^ 
after a careful examination of the T^che and Attakapas country, said : 

"I have heretofore thought that Central Illinois was the finest farming 
country in the world. I own a large farm there, with improvements 
equal to any in the country. I cultivate about two thousand acres in 
small grain, besides other crops ; but since I have seen the TSche and 
Attakapas country I do not see how any man who has seen this country 
can be satisfied to live in Illinois. 

''I find that I can raise everything in Louisiana that can be raised 
in Illinois, and that I can raise a hundred things there which cannot 
be raised in Illinois. I find the lands easier worked in Louisiana, 
infinitely richer and yielding far more, and with the fairest climate on 
earth, and no trouble to get to market. I shall return to Illinois, sell 
out, and persuade my neighbors to do the same, and return to Louis- 
iana to spend the remainder of my days." 

The editor of the Chicago Tribime, after visiting the Teche country, 
said to his 50,000 subscribers : 

"If, by some supreme effort of nature. Western Louisiana, with its 
soil, climate and production could be taken up and transported north, 

— 78 — 



LOUISIANA. 

to the latitude of Illinois and Indiana, and be there set down in the 
pathway of Eastern travel, it would create a commotion that would 
throw the discovery of gold in California in the shade at the time of 
the greatest excitement. The people would rush to it in countless 
thousands. Every man would be intent on securing a few acres of 
these wonderfully productive and profitable sugar planes. These 
T^che lands, if in Illinois, would bring from three to five hundred 
dollars per acre." 




A BAYOU VISTA. 



79 — 



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